ExtendOurGym-West Wight Sports & Community Centre

Aim

We want to extend our gym to create an inclusive facility, that helps our whole community towards a fitter, healthier lifestyle

Feedback from both members and staff has shown that our gym needs to be bigger, with more space around each piece of equipment. Some of the equipment and décor (much of which is now 18 years old) is also in need of refreshing/renewing.  We also need extra space to allow us to install new pieces of equipment and we would like to be able to add more services for our members to include advice and guidance on nutrition and other aspects of health and well-being. 

We want our gym to be an inclusive facility, which supports anyone in our community to improve their fitness and make positive lifestyle choices.

Our charity provides services to the entire community - young and old - and from all social backgrounds. We are a hub which supports peoples health and well-being -  including their mental, physical and emotional health. As a charity we see the gym extension as an opportunity to improve the service we provide to our community and to make fitness and well-being services more accessible to more people.

The history 

Our Centre goes back 40 years to when a group of local people got together and built the West Wight Swimming Pool (in the days when there was no indoor swimming pool on the Isle of Wight). The past 40 years have seen us grow into a community hub with the original pool still operating but with the addition over the years of a small pool, sports centre and now a community centre. Together with West Wight Swimming Club, we're especially proud to have produced a Commonwealth Games medallist (Darren Mew), and a BBC Sports Unsung Hero (Trevor Collins). Our history continues to develop and our facilities now  include:

 - 25 metre swimming pool

- 12 metre learner/hydrotherapy pool

- sports hall

- gym

- cafe and community kitchen

- meeting rooms

- community centre

- indoor cycling room

- I.T. room

- chiropractor clinic

- hair salon

- physiotherapy clinic

Our current work 

We are now a hub for our community which enables us to work in partnership with other volunteers and professionals . We support peoples health and well-being by providing services that include:

• providing a safe place for vulnerable and lonely people to socialise and access support services when needed. This includes services which support those who are isolated for a variety of reasons including those who are homeless
• providing training and volunteering opportunities for people with mental and physical disabilities, those returning to work or those with mental health challenges. In particular we provide this through our COOK Project (Creating Opportunities in Our Kitchen)
• providing activities for young people through dedicated youth clubs, sports and fitness activities and a Duke of Edinburgh programme
• supporting and providing activities for older people and those with long term conditions
• providing a venue for adult education, training and support in such things as literacy and numeracy, IT, job search, and managing personal finances

Our future

We want to create a place where people can come to be supported to improve their health and well-being and where that support fits the needs and wants of the individual. Our gym already has a reputation for inclusivity but we know that we can develop this further by increasing the size of the gym enabling us to reach a wider group of people who may previously have thought that a gym was not for them.

We want to increase the size of our gym by around 50% and add equipment and services to support more people. 

We estimate the cost of the project to be in the region of £150,000. 

Please help us to achieve our goal 

Current Gym

This project successfully funded on 11th June 2018