Support St Marys growing participation for all

Aim

St Marys need to support our community users from all backgrounds, specifically those challenged by the Cost of Living Crisis and Post Covid

Who we are?

We are a diverse and inclusive Rugby Club based in Bradley Stoke, Bristol running  

• Minis and Juniors teams from the age of 6-16 
• 2 Senior Mens teams
• A Ladies social team
• A Touch Union team

We are a Touch Union Centre welcoming players from outside of our Club and we also run a Walking Rugby team for families and Mixed Ability participants.  We are also home to other sporting teams, the Bristol Harps Gaelic Football Club, and 4 Association Football youth teams from Bradley Stoke Youth Football Club. We also run a Skittles team for older members and host Redefine Mentoring at the Club who provide a 1-1 service for children not in mainstream education. 

Why are we running this Crowdfunder?

The impact of the Covid Pandemic has seen a substantial decline in participation across our community, and the worst affected families are our most vulnerable, most disadvantaged and most isolated.  

We have developed a series of programs to identify and help these groups, with the support of schools, Access Sport and the Star Scheme.  We hope to also have the support of the Sport England Active Together fund through this Crowdfunder.

We know the amazing benefits of engaging in sport can bring both physically and more importantly mental well being.

The common challenge for us is financial. These groups require a significant level of commitment by our club including free kit, transport, food, access to training for the volunteers to support them and improvement in our facilities.

Our role in the Community

We are in a challenging area at a difficult time - our area has a low scores. on the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index meaning there is little disposable income for sporting activities.  We have identified these barriers to participation and therefore aim to provide free food, kit and support with transport for your young people to ensure they are not excluded.

We have a clear vision to become the best Community Rugby Club in Bristol.  This means offering great Rugby, Other Sports and Social opportunities to everyone in our community. We need to improve our facilities to meet the needs of our community users and players.  

What are we trying to achieve?

We aim to continue our engagement and recruitment in the community including:

• becoming the hub in Bristol for Adult Mixed Ability 15 a side rugby, which offers opportunities for people with a range of disabilities to be able to play alongside fully able players, form new friendships and enhance their mental health and wellbeing.  Working with Access Sport, and IMAS, and engaging with service users from the likes of Mencap and the Alzheimers Society.

• Joining the Star Scheme with the support of Bristol Bears.  The Star Scheme through the sport of rugby, aims to make a material difference in the lives of young people who have Adverse Childhood & community Experiences (ACEs), poverty or mental health issues.
• Working with our local GPs to ensure our offering is known about and available for social prescribing

What support do we need to make this happen?

Our gym is in need of new equipment including free weights, squat racks and up to date benches to enable us to open the facility to community users and not just players.  Having up to date conditioning equipment that is flexible and adaptable is a key requirement for these users. We are working with local Personal Trainers who will offer classes and 1-1 sessions to encourage people from our community with additional needs to get active.  

We also want to be able to record their games and achievements.  Seeing yourself in action is a great motivator for players of all ages and abilities and we want to raise enough funds so our whole club can benefit from an up to date AI driven video camera and associated subscription.

Finally we need to upgrade our floodlights before Autumn comes.  Our current floodlights restrict the number of community activities we can host - an upgrade would help us rectify this. We are also using old fashioned lights where the replacement bulbs are expensive and environmentally unfriendly relying on mercury as a source of light.  Any funds we raise over and above the gym, mixed ability and camera requirements can go towards our floodlight upgrade project.  

Moving to LEDs will reduce our carbon footprint, remove harmful old style lamps from the environment and enable more use of our pitches through winter to club and community users.

Our Track Record with your money

This will be our third Crowdfunder and the first two with your support have been awesome but just to remind you this is what we have already achieved together:

Crowdfunder 1

Our First Crowdfunder saw us raise money to 1) equip our Kitchen with new and up to date equipment 

and  2)  erect and commission a Tractor Store as part of our long term plan to free up space for more changing facilities in our Clubhouse.

Crowdfunder 2

Our Second Crowdfunder had 3 objectives: Replace damaged and unusable posts on our Rugby pitch; see below:

refurbish our kids playground that had become dangerous and overgrown - see results below

and complete the commissioning of our kit store from a  portakabin without a side. Now our main kit store.

Crowdfunder 3? 

As you can see above all our previous projects were successfully completed with the help from all of you and our Crowdfunding partner Sport England and you can be sure we will use this Crowdfunder to achieve our new objectives and keep delivering for our Community.

Support, Donations and Rewards:

We understand these are difficult times to be asking for money, so we have created an exciting array of awards, from Money Can't Buy items to items or experiences at heavily discounted prices, from as little as £5.

If you are looking at more than one reward, feel free to donate several times. Many thanks to our kind supporters who have made these incredible rewards possible.

This project successfully funded on 12th October 2023