Keep Richmond Dales Swimming for another 50 years!

Aim

To raise £50,000 to help us diversify our income and continue to deliver inclusive swimming to our local communities for another 50 years!

Who are we?

Richmond Dales ASC isn’t just a swim club, it’s a living example of how fierce care, inclusion and high performance work together to transform lives.

2026 marks our 50th anniversary reflecting on five decades of development, community, and competitive success. We’ve grown into a nationally recognised Swim England club with over 150 swimmers and built the largest para-swimming footprint in northern England. Families travel from across the region, some more than an hour each way, numerous times per week and when we’ve asked why, they’ve told us it’s because what we offer goes beyond swimming.

At Richmond Dales, we believe performance is the outcome of care, not the cost of it. Our approach nurtures each swimmer’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. We create fun, inclusive environments where friendships are made for life and champions are built from the inside out. 

Our belief is that every swimmer should not just enjoy training but should enjoy competition to the highest levels as well as teaching vital social and life skills to maximise confidence and self belief. This has been demonstrated with representation at the British Para International Meet for several years, British swimming championships, British and English summer nationals and even the Olympics and Para Olympics! 

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are a club that has an immediate need!

The  closure of Richmond Pool (we are praying on this being temporary) has cut our training capacity which in addition to rising pool costs, places our swimmer retention and club sustainability at significant risk. 

This crisis threatens the belonging, inclusion and belief that our swimmers experience, the very impact that we have created for 50 years! 

The impact of our club not being in place in the future will not only remove the health and wellbeing benefits for over 150 swimmers, it will remove the inclusion lifeline that we know we provide that is critical for all of our swimmers and especially our para team including our parents and their support network. 

We are not asking for ongoing support, just a runway to implement long-term, income-generating strategies. We already have the vision, team, and business plan. Your support helps us bridge this gap and secure the next 50 years of inclusive, high-performance swimming.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We are seeking £50,000 in support to help us diversify our income and continue to support the swimming community with high performance inclusive sport being accessible across the North of England.

What will the money be spent on?

• Offsetting costs and securing of additional pool time during the emergency Richmond pool closure ensuring that our club continues to be accessible to our swimmers
• Implement an underwater video coaching system to boost swimmer performance, coaching insight and providing this service to other clubs
• Launch an in-person Inclusivity Training Programme to support other clubs in our lived experience of inclusive and equitable sport 
• Develop and launch inclusive, high performance swim camps upto national levels for mainstream and para athletes . Making care, confidence-building and integration the norm
• Develop and train the next generation of swimming leaders integrating this opportunity for our older swimmers and para swimmers who have expressed an interest in becoming a coach
• Developing our parent support for families that struggle to access training and competitions

Community impact

We know we make a huge impact to our community because our swimmers and our families tell us and travel long distances from across our region multiple times per week, they tell us that what we provide goes beyond sport. 

We asked some of our swimmers to describe why they loved swimming in one word and they told us.....

Friendship, Fitness, Confidence, Freedom, Focus, Belonging, Teamwork, Fun, 

Our top swimmers tell us that when they are going through their GCSE's it's swimming where they feel calm, everything stops when they swim and our para swimmers tell us swimming is where they feel free! 

To develop a sustainable club means we can continue to provide this impact for another 50 years, maybe even expand it if we can also keep Richmond Pool open. 

Your donation, whether £50 or £5,000 helps us keep our swimmers in the water, develop the next generation of athletes and coaches, and build a future where care drives performance.

Together, we’ll swim the next 50 years stronger, fairer, and faster than ever.

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. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – 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!

This project successfully funded on 24th September 2025