Always on
This project successfully funded on 23rd April 2024, you can still support them with a donation.
Clubhouse Renovations
Ivybridge, Devon, United Kingdom
Aim: Renovate worn and tired parts of our clubhouse. Making it safe and clean once more for the benefit of the whole community who use it.
Who are we?
The South Devon Tennis Centre is a not-for-profit organisation, run by a volunteer committee, with Community Association Status. For the last 20 years, they have successfully been running tennis programmes from 4 covered indoor courts and 2 outdoor courts. The centre continues to be a vital hub for sports and community engagement in the area. With a strong emphasis on inclusivity, they have successfully expanded its tennis programs and introduced new sports like netball and pickleball.
Their collaboration with Netball England has not only enhanced the visibility of the centre but has also encouraged girls in the community to participate in sports, thus fostering physical activity and teamwork skills. The inclusive tennis program is a significant step towards ensuring that sports are accessible to everyone, regardless of ability or background, embodying the Lawn Tennis Association's vision of "Tennis Opened Up."
The addition of pickleball—an increasingly popular and accessible sport—demonstrates the centre's commitment to offering activities that cater to a wide audience, promoting health and well-being across all age groups. By providing a welcoming environment for various sports, the South Devon Tennis Centre is not only enhancing athletic skills but also strengthening community ties and promoting a healthy lifestyle for its residents.
As they look to the future, the centre's plans for program expansion and continued collaboration with organizations like Netball England hold the promise of further enriching the community’s sports landscape. This approach is crucial in encouraging lifelong engagement in physical activity and fostering a strong, healthy community spirit.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Here at the South Devon Tennis Centre, we need to make some big renovations to our clubhouse. The fantastic extension that was built 20 years ago is a wonderful space for our sports/tennis players, but as you can imagine 20 years on, things start to break & need replacing or modernising.
There are large parts of the centre which due to the huge success of the programme over the years, have become very worn, such as the internal flooring. Some of this is now becoming a trip hazard, and with hundreds of families visiting the centre every week, and to enable us to continue providing quality sport, health and wellbeing activities for the whole community, it is important that we make the centre 100% safe once more.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We need new flooring throughout the clubhouse which is separate from the carpeted courts - worn down the backing, lifting at doors and joints, stained
Toilets & changing rooms need repairs & renovating - flooring coming up, sinks and units dated and stained, cubicle door furniture breaking
An air con unit for our kitchen in the cafe/reception - during tournaments the kitchen becomes unbearable for staff to work in, especially in the summer months - it is a small kitchen not built for the volumes of food now being served
The whole exterior of the building needs a thorough clean - remove staining from weather over the last 20 years
Furnishings - chairs/tables/tv/patio furniture - it all needs a big update - broken ones have been removed, others are dated and wearing, likely to also break in coming months
Bi fold doors out onto our patio area, next to our outside courts - with the success of the venue as a grass roots tennis tournament venue, with a completely flat and fully accessible viewing space - now would be the time to open the back of the building with bifold doors to make the most of the outdoor viewing area for the summer. This would also mean we could replace and repair the outdoor patio spaces which are lifting and causing a potential trip hazard.
Community impact
Tennis: The South Devon Tennis Centre provides Tennis for the whole community. With an active junior and adult tennis programme. The Centre is fully aligned with the Lawn Tennis’ Vision for increased participation and tennis opened up for everyone.
Their plan for the future is to expand the inclusive tennis programme to include tennis for children with neurodiversity and those people struggling with mental health. They plan to employ a coach with specific role of brining all of their current inclusive programmes under one offering.
- Disability Tennis – wheelchair tennis
- Tennis in Mind – Mental health, working with charity to support those suffering with mental health in our community (starting September / October 2023)
- Walking Tennis – Perfect for older players, combating loneliness and mobility in older age
- Home School Tennis – Providing a quality PE lesson for those children outside mainstream,
- Tennis for girls – Enabling more girls and women to access tennis, and flourish in the sport
- Free Tennis – Enabling low income families to access sport
Netball:
In 2022 the South Devon Tennis Centre opened it’s doors to West Devon Netball, a relationship which has been incredibly successful for both clubs.
The venue was able to offer 3 indoor carpeted netball courts with excellent viewing facilities and onsite catering provision, just off the A38 near Ivybridge. This has proven highly successful for traveling clubs coming to compete against West Devon Teams. Other netball venues in Plymouth and South Devon cannot match the Tennis Centre for its onsite facilities, even simple provisions like toilets and viewing.
On 25 Sundays throughout the season, West Devon Junior Netball made the South Devon Tennis Centre their base for Plymouth and District leagues matches. They were able to fill court time that was not needed for tennis with three netball courts running matches at the same time.
The Centre has also hosted Junior netball clubs competing in the South West Regional league, U14 and U16 age groups.
At the end of the first year this success meant that West Devon Netball wanted to expand its training programme and bring all of their junior programme to the South Devon Tennis Centre.
Netball England have demonstrated that there is an unmet need in both South Hams and West Devon for covered Netball courts (England Netball Area Profiles).
In addition to this an active Sport Survey in 2022 has seen Netball go back to being the most popular team sport for women and girls, which means that this unmet need is a real problem for the future of netball locally.
Unlike other sports Netball clubs do not have club houses, or dedicated facilities. In South Hams, they are reliant on schools providing space around exams, very few venues can provide more than two courts and competitions often have to be split between venues.
There are 3 clubs in Ivybridge alone, from under 11s to adults, with over 100 members who do not have a permanent base. England Netball Membership for the West Devon Netball Club has also grown by 13.5 % since 2020.
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!