WHO ARE WE?

"We are Vida Active Club CIC. We empower older people in our community to stay active and connected by providing engaging exercise sessions and social activities."

After launching Exercise & Socialize for the Over 60s in September 2019, Vida Active has worked with over 600 seniors, helping them to get fitter, healthier and happier. We have so far worked from 8 different community centres and church halls in Sussex. We provided huge support to the seniors throughout the pandemic, staying connected via phone calls, doing online (zoom) exercise and conversation sessions, and running exercise classes in parks with social distancing tea afterwards.

Post pandemic, we managed to find our own premises and opened our doors to the community in April 2022. Though we also offer classes for women early mornings and in the evenings, the time between 10am and 3pm is solely dedicated to seniors for exercise sessions with refreshments afterwards. Friday afternoons and some Friday and Saturdays evenings are also used for social activities, which include Seniors Disco, Afternoon Teas, Art & Conversation, Film Clubs, Board Games and more.

COMMUNITY IMPACT

During it's two years in Hove, Vida Active's impact in the local community has been undoubtedly very positive.

* Seniors who attend our sessions report feeling stronger, less pain, less fearful of falling and better equipped to deal with everyday life.

* Two seniors who started as class attendees are now instructing classes. This has given them a whole new lease of life. Their self-worth has improved, they have a new reason to wake-up in the mornings,  feel needed and wanted and are earning money and contributing to the economy.

* Five members have become volunteers: minding reception, setting-up for classes, making refreshments, looking after the garden, organizing days out and fundraising etc. They too have a new purpose. 

* Our studio has also become a centre for local artists with the guidance of one of the senior participants of our classes, Polly Ballantine. She runs "Art & Conversation" sessions for those who want to have some fun trying their hand at art while meeting other people. Quite remarkably, she has also created the Vida Artists Group who, as a collective,  entered the May 2022 "Artists Open Houses" event and won first price for the whole of Brighton and Hove. Such an achievement by a 78 years old lady and a group of local artists originating from 8 different countries. 

Below the Mayoress visiting Vida Active Artists Open House.
* People from this and neighboring communities have formed friendship groups. They organize walks, lunches, days out on trains and busses, cinema & theatre trips and much more. These people also all look after each other. When anyone is ill or has an injury, they now have plenty of people they can call on for help, support and companionship. 

* Our studio has become a real social hub too. On top of becoming THE place seniors in the neighboring communities go to exercise, they now also come to socialize.  They attend Senior's Discos, Afternoon Teas, Vintage Fashion Show (just for fun) events, Board Games afternoon, Film Clubs ...

* Seniors in general testify to feeling less lonely, happier and more connected. They also report being physically and mentally more able to look after or interact with grand-children and volunteer at charity shops.  

Due to our location, with 6 bus routes stopping right at our door and another 4 just a block away, seniors attend from up to a 6 miles radios, including many disadvantaged communities. Everyone is always immediately welcomed and embraced by the other members.

WHY WE ARE FUNDRAISING

Our aim is to raise enough money to be able to hold on to our premises, improve them to better suit the needs of the users and build stability over the next year while we grow the commercial side of the business.

We keep our prices affordable so the seniors can attend more regularly. Once a week would not have the physical impact or the social connections they need and crave. But for so many, more than one class a week would become unaffordable if we were to charge the going rate for classes in our area.

Costs are high though and we need to improve our facilities to accommodate the demand and offer classes in a safe environment. On top of ongoing overheads such as rent, rates, bills, instructor costs etc, e need to change the studio floor to make it safe and adequate for fitness, install a ramp and railings to the garden so everyone can have access to it, install electric fans and purchase suitable, stackable chairs for the chair based exercises and social events.

HOW WE WILL SPEND THE MONEY RAISED

We are aiming to raise £15.000 to, in addition to the contributions paid by the seniors, make the necessary improvements to our facilities and help with overheads to keep our services running for the next year and beyond. 

* 1K will be spent on new stackable chairs and tables. We currently have a quantity of donated chairs.  They are mismatched, not totally safe and not suitable for chair based activities. As they are mismatched they are also difficult to store, and storing them eats into the usable space. It would be great (and safer) to have proper, sturdy, stackable chairs.  We also need tables for our social activities. Your support will allow more older people to take part in the chair based exercises and social activities and help us make sure they are safe. 

* £500 is to build a rump and railing to our garden so that everyone can have access for refreshments in the spring and summer. The space is small but it's done up beautifully by volunteers and is a lovely little escape for refreshments and catch-up when the weather permits. However, seniors in wheelchairs and those who find it difficult to manage the steps are currently left-out, which is completely unfair. Your support will help people with disabilities, and those who are frail, have access to the garden, where the majority of the socializing happens in the spring/summer. 

* £500 to be spent on wall fans.  Our studio gets very hot in the summer, specially with large numbers in classes. Our current floor standing fans are flimsy and mostly broken. They also get in the way, reducing usable floor space and are a safety hazard, specially for seniors. Your support will allow us to carry on with exercise classes in very hot days and allow more people access to the classes by reducing floor clutter. 

* 8k will be used to change the studio floor - currently not ideal and not safe for fitness classes.  The flooring is old, coming loose in places and hard, which impacts on knees and joints. It needs changing and, if possible, we want to install sprung flooring so the members (and instructors) knees and joints don't suffer as much. Your support will mean that the flooring is safe for dance activities - which the seniors love. It will also mean we can hire out the studio when not is use by us, bringing in further revenue for the social enterprise and community projects. 

* All further amounts will go towards overheads: rent, rates, bills, insurance, licenses, instructor costs etc. Your support will mean our activities don't stop and older people in the community continue to physically and mentally benefit.

I, as the founder and managing director of Vida Active, am really proud of my team of instructors, the volunteers, all the wonderful people who attend our club and myself.  The passion for creating a special place in our community is already a reality. Now we need to keep on working to not only keep this place open, but hopefully open other places like one this  in the future.

HOW YOU CAN PLAY YOUR PART

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, maybe a sponsored activity or similar, use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!