JOHN'S CLUB IOW' GET FIT, KEEP FIT' PROJECT

Aim

To purchase an outdoor gym for our club who support adults with learning disabilities. This will also benefit the local community.

Like most people, lockdown has been extremely hard for our members to cope with, many of them who live in supported accommodation have been unable to get out to exercise and sadly lack the motivation to do so. Many of them spend hours on their phones etc or just watching tv or colouring. This is not our vision! We are very sports orientated, in 2019 we won the Southampton disability league 5 a side football trophy and have been nominated for an award from the IOW Sports Foundation, all in their first year of playing, we are so proud of them. 

What we would really like to achieve is to install an outdoor gym at a cost of around £20000. Obviously, with covid 19 we are unable to fundraise as much as we would like and sadly we have had to shut our charity shop so this seems like an unreachable dream.

We are based at Oakfield FC situated in a rather deprived area in Ryde on the IOW, we are eager to reach out to the local community to help break down social barriers and to give people a wider insight into disabilities. We plan to open up the use of the gym and our clubhouse to the local community, also the facilities will be used by the local football clubs.

We are trying to educate the members in healthy living, promoting exercise and healthy living.

We are trying so hard to get them off of their electronic devices and concentrate more on living a healthy lifestyle!

Our club is unique in that we offer them a social life, 7 days a week in a safe environment without fear of bullying. Many are unable to use public transport so we pick up the members in our minibuses. I am so proud to be part of such an amazing club, run by John Phillips who was awarded the MBE for his work with learning disabilities. The club has been running for over 25 years thanks to him and his wife and a dedicated team of staff and volunteers and importantly the members who have a huge input into the running of the club, something that John strongly believes in.

I do hope that you are able to help us in our fundraising venture. Thank you

This project successfully funded on 23rd March 2021