More Space for Sports therapy for the vulnerable

Aim

Cherishers provides adaptive sport activities that overcome social isolation. We would create a new space to host 6x more participants.

Who we are

Cherishers 811 CIC is rooted in rural Staffordshire and provides care and support in that area. We empower the Elderly & Disabled to stay active while living with a disability.  We respond to the community needs by providing focused care, community, and sports therapy activities for free, on demand.

Cherishers is Community led as we truly give a voice to those who need care in our community. We deliver activity in areas experiencing social and economic deprivation, as a rural community and focus on support for disabled people, and those from lower socio-economic groups. This includes home care, shopping, collecting prescriptions and sports therapy activities such as Adapted Chair Based Aerobics, Adapted Zumba, Adapted Pilates, adapted cycling and Stretching for The Elderly.

What we do currently...

Our community space currently can host 10 people -  but we need your help to be able to host more people! As well as improving the fitness of the of our elderly community, our adaptive sport initiatives help tackle loneliness by removing isolation. 

We have a wait list of additional 30 people who are interested in attending our sports therapy and this is without advertising more space availability.

What we can do with your help

We need to expand our space and have just secured the property next door. We would create improved space to host 60 people (6 x capacity increase) for our sports therapy classes.

Our adaptive sport activities have been a great way to overcome social isolation and something that people of all ages can get involved with. Such activities are even a good way for those in who attend our wellbeing room to come together and participate on a regular basis.

We need YOUR HELP to adapt and modernise our space including removing walls so it is a welcoming and sociable place, able to host a variety of sports classes and accessible to everyone. By making the expanded new area accessible to all, we could then host events of much greater scale that are not dependent on the weather and our outside courtyard space.

Our activity includes:

Room restructure, refurbishment includes inserting beams between existing shops and rear access passage way and removing walls, making good ceiling and walls redecoration. Creating huge room to host 60 -70 people will cost £21,500

We have already well established partnerships with Support Staffordshire, Local food banks, Social services - Staffordshire County Council, Disability Solutions, HA Communities South Staffs, Staffordshire Adult safeguarding, and the DWP/Job Centres.  As a Disability Confident and Living Wage employer, being Registered with CQC Care Quality Commission has meant ease of referral to our services.

We are also starting to work with local social subscribers so that we can be a source of support for the local community. We additionally work with Rugeley Town Council and local town councillors – we are the only independently owned not for profit care provider in Rugeley and we also have a high street presence with our community shop and community wellbeing room, where we get many walk in referrals.

We successfully crowd funded last year to improve our yard space and create a new disabled friendly wet room/changing room - but we need more space inside!

We are starting a campaign in May to promote the sports therapy availability - this will be included on our Facebook page and newsletter as well as leaflets being created to pick up when you visit us.

Thank you to all the amazing people who donated last time - but we now know we still have more to do!

Before the renovation of the yard ...

After thanks to our previous amazing crowdfund...

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022?

Whilst we recognise that warmth and food are the essential priorities, we also want to help with mobility issues and social interaction.

We know that sport and leisure activities are often the first sacrificed in a cost-of-living crisis and we are delivering activity in an area experiencing social and economic deprivation, especially as a rural community.

We are close to the location of the Amazing 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and we know from our community how inspiring the games were.

We want to increase our investment in community sport and physical activity and as a community company we are additionally applying to Sport England Places and Spaces to enable matched crowdfunding for works that will enhance places and spaces within our local community area. The aim is to unite communities as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games legacy.

How you can play your part – Here is how YOU can get involved

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

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

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.

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!

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. 

We have been thrilled with your support on our recent crowdfunds.

In the last year we have provided a new yard space that can welcome 20 vulnerable members at any time for adaptive sports activities, increasing capacity by 150% outside and a wet room / disabled toilet so they can partake in the sports facilities.

Other successful crowdfunds have enabled us to run a warm room, a befriending helpline, salaries for carers and support workers, emergency food parcels, support with financial wellbeing and adoption of digital technology and the hosting of anti-loneliness events that provide companionship and reduce isolation.

This support has helped over 900 people access support through sport, therapy, lunch clubs, crafting and attend events that were free to them and meant the world to them.

We could not have done this without you and the generous fund match grants we have received.

This project successfully funded on 16th June 2023