SEND outdoor fitness - Warwick

Evergreen is a special school in Warwick serving pupils aged 11–19 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We want to enable people in the Warwick and Leamington who have SEND to access health and fitness opportunities in a safe environment that meets their needs. The equipment would be accessible to our pupils during the school day and open to community users outside of school hours.

As Evergreen is a central figure within the community and linked to other community organisations for people with SEND, we are best suited to lead this project due our connections, location and reputation.

We would like to expand our present successful provision of outdoor SEND accessible equipment and offer it to the community

Why are we crowdfunding?

Disabled people are consistently one of the least active groups in England. This inactivity gap contributes to poorer health, lower wellbeing, and shorter life expectancy for people with SEND.

Our families and local community tell us that community parks are not always appropriate environments for people with SEND to exercise, often not having secure perimeters or being very busy and crowded. As such, we would like to purchase and install accessible fitness equipment into our existing safe, sensory environment.

As one community user explained 'It would make a huge difference as people with SEND who have very little access to this outside school or hospital, or have to travel a long way to find suitable places and equipment for exercise that more able-bodied people can find easily. Exercise would not only benefit their physical health but their mental health too (and that of their carers).'

How we’ll spend the money raised

We aim to purchase 4 - 5 pieces of outdoor gym equipment plus a rainbow canopy. We will seek fitness equipment that can suit people with a range of disabilities. The rainbow canopy will give additional sensory input whilst adding shelter from the weather. This will be installed on our playground area and offered for community use outside of school hours.

Sport England will give us £7,500 if we raise £9,982 from the crowd.

Community impact

This project will benefit people in the local community with SEND and their families/ support staff. They will be able to engage with meaningful and accessible fitness equipment in an environment that considers their wider needs including accessible toilets, secure perimeters and equipment that is tailored to their needs.

Our provision removes the barriers that families are telling us prevent them from using existing community facilities:

*Car parking

*Quiet environment

*Secure boundaries (48% of those surveyed said the person they support exhibits unpredictable and unsafe behaviour

*Accessible paths

*Toilets

As one family member of a young person with SEND explained ' It would be a safe place where they could confidently use the equipment enabling them to improve their physical fitness. It would benefit them massively and being outdoors, help boost metal well-being for them and their families too.'

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!