Who are we?
We are a high performing archery club with strong values built around people development, inclusivity, environmental stewardship and community engagement.
Based in Gloucestershire on an inert material landfill site located in a greenbelt area, we are a ‘not for profit’ Company Limited by Guarantee, a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC), embracing sport, social and recreational activities.
We strive to be so much more than just individuals who shoot arrows accurately! Being a club is about more than just a sport, it’s about fostering a sense of community, learning together and ensuring everyone, regardless of ability or role in the club, experiences the support and culture to become the best version of themselves. We want to contribute to the development of the whole person, not just the archer or volunteer!
Our approach to environmental sustainability and inclusivity is the same - we want to lead the way and help set the standards. We are pleased to have strong relationships with: The Worshipful Company of Fletchers, Listening Post (counselling Service for Gloucestershire Citizens) and Allsorts (charity that supports families with disabled children).
Despite being a large club with more than 200 members and more than 10 acres of woodland, large playing surfaces and four buildings, floodlit facilities and hosting daily sporting and social events, we are run entirely by volunteers.
Over the past 15 years we have been recognised not just for outstanding sporting achievements (Tokyo Paralympic Gold, World No1 Ranked Archers, World Record holders, multiple Great Britain squad members and numerous British Champions etc.), but for our volunteer management and work in the community.
In the past 12 months we have been awarded the Sport and Recreation Alliance ‘Green’ Club of the Year and featured in the Sport England Environmental Sustainability Strategy as a case study ( https://www.sportengland.org/guidance-and-support/facilities-and-planning/sustainability/deer-park-archers ) and also as a Sport England short video ( https://youtu.be/GEj6b5nxHHM ) detailing our approach to environmental stewardship.
Why are we crowdfunding?
People are drawn by the quality of experience we offer and the numerous successes we’ve achieved both on and off the field, so demand to use our facilities is soaring and membership continues to increase!
Against this background, the need for this project was identified following a member survey and review of our Club organisation, member expectations and challenges to our long-term development and sustainability.
The review helped us understand what has made us so successful to-date and also identify actions needed to ensure our continued future growth and uphold our core values.
The results were used to devise our medium-term development strategy and inform the successful submission of a planning application to expand our Club’s facilities to provide three critically needed modules, which following a tendering process, will cost an estimated £130,000.
The proceeds of our Crowdfunding will be spent on facility development, which is required to facilitate the Club’s future growth and the delivery of our inclusivity and environmental stewardship aspirations.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We will build the following facilities:
• A Social Activity/Gathering Area: Providing parents and carers with the opportunity to socialise, turning a ‘wait in the car/hang around chore’ into a positive experience, therefore encouraging parents to bring juniors more regularly to practice! A year-round space that brings people together to foster stronger connections within the club, attracting more volunteers and which creates a stronger support system for Club maintenance, committee roles and environmental initiatives. This area will help facilitate lift sharing and increased participation in the Club’s social activities and will also be made available to the wider community, as we’ve already done with other Club facilities.
• A Ground/Facility Maintenance Workshop: Essential to our operations is our volunteer workforce, part of which is our Men-in-Sheds Team (to be renamed the ‘Sheds’ Team to reflect our female membership). This group is critical to the Club, supporting the delivery of our strategy in various ways: maintaining our archery activities; undertaking essential building upkeep and ground maintenance, delivering award-winning environmental work and ultimately helping the Club to remain financially viable and inclusive. To sustainably achieve our goals, we need to provide a larger purpose-built workshop, allowing us to grow the team in both skills and numbers, underpinning the future success of the club.
• To accommodate our growing membership, we plan to increase our floodlit outdoor shooting bays by 50%. This will allow more members to practice regularly, and help keep membership fees affordable. Indoor shooting facilities, used from October to March each year, are prohibitively expensive and generally unavailable at the distances our archers need. The new bays will allow our experienced/performance archers to practice longer distances (50/70m) under floodlights and create capacity for recreational archers who need more opportunity to shoot. It will also provide us the opportunity to host night-time tournaments (ultimately powered by our own solar energy!), creating a national-standard facility, unique in our region.
- This funding will also include the provision of much needed additional site drainage which will reduce the risk of flooding in front of our covered shooting area. This will prevent frequent cancellations of practice sessions due to waterlogged grounds, which, with climate change, is likely to become more of an issue if the problem remained unaddressed.
- These new facilities will enable us to rework our existing facilities, freeing up space for a new Field Course Centre, supporting our most rapidly growing area of activity. It will offer storage and a social/refreshment area and an Archery Equipment Maintenance Area to help members up-skill, reducing their costs and the need for trips to distant archery shops!
- As a separate, subsequent project we also plan to install additional solar panels on the new building roof space with a battery storage system. Currently, we have 66 solar panels that feed energy back into the National Grid, but we actually use 90% of our electricity at night during the Winter season. Installing a solar battery system would save the Club at least £3,000 per year and greatly add to our environmental credentials.
This is an investment in the future of archery, not just for current members but for future generations, with the new facilities supporting the long-term development of the Club. We want to continue to lead the way on environmental sustainability and inclusivity whilst remaining financially affordable for all, strengthening our role in the community.
Community impact
Through the work of our volunteers and our commitment to ‘improve the natural environment under our control and to maximise its energy efficiency’ we are transforming a landfill site, which was a bog full of invasive species, into a haven for wildlife and a pleasure for our community to enjoy!
( https://deerparkarchers.co.uk/about-us/sustainability-our-environment/ ).
The impact of this focus is truly special and we are seeing so many great results; however, there is an even greater benefit as our members take these experiences and values back into their communities and support even more change!
As a Lead Member for Climate and Ecology in Tewkesbury, Councillor Cate Cody is visiting individuals, workplaces and businesses committed to doing their bit for nature and the environment. Following a visit to the Club, she commented:
“A recent tour of Deer Park Archers in Shurdington revealed a club excelling in their part to improve biodiversity, with sustainability and the environment, community and inclusivity at the heart of what they do. Reducing carbon emissions and supporting nature are as much a part of the club as the camaraderie, volunteers and team building.”
Our mainstream activity of archery is providing pathways for juniors and adults of all ages to participate and progress in the sport, fuelling Olympic/Paralympic dreams and empowering the next generation. Your donation will help our Club and our archers to compete at the highest levels and inspire our entire community!
We are providing a cost-effective meeting venue to a number of local community groups, including: astronomy and bowls clubs; classroom facilities for local businesses; as well as offering a free occasional venue for the likes of Gloucestershire Constabulary Drone Training Workshops. We also facilitate many onsite business away-days for organisations such as the Energy Agency and the National Trust. The new facilities will help us to support even more community-based organisations.
As previously stated, we support a number of local charities, both through the provision of free hire for training workshops, “have-a-go” team building sessions and running fundraising on their behalf. Our Sheds Team also collectively carry out work projects for our chosen local charities.
With so much housing development currently taking place in our immediate surrounding area, demand for our offering and facilities will inevitably grow and the provision of nature, sport, social and recreational opportunities will become even more popular and locally provided!
More functional facilities would give the club the opportunity to host events and invite the community in, thereby encouraging more people to be active and enjoy sport, meet people and make friends.
Our coaching team delivers archery experiences to local schools, encouraging those often labelled ‘non-sporty’ to give a ‘non contact, non ball, non team’ sport a try. These sessions are invariably well-received and often generate ongoing interest from participants – exceptionally, one individual, who had never engaged in any sport offered by her school, enjoyed their “taster session” so much they joined the Club; became a committed archer; joined the ArcheryGB development squad and ultimately went on to become World Junior Compound Champion whilst competing in Argentina!
Many local clubs do not have their own Winter facilities and cannot offer regular practice sessions - we run tournaments for them to participate in and offer guest visit access to the club. We also offer Associate membership to members of the Army ‘Rapid Reaction Task Force’, as well as University students and those working on a temporary basis in the area, enabling people to continue to pursue their hobby and have some consistency during what can be unsettling times.
We are keen to extend these types of support to our wider community because we can see the benefits they bring and the positive impact they have on both individuals and groups: we need to achieve our crowdfunding target to complete the proposed facilities, perhaps just to sustain what we do, but hopefully to extend our reach and contribution to our community!
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 are going to support us because momentum is key to our success! Our journey encompasses so much more than just sport and we want to encourage other sports clubs to enjoy a similar journey, positively impacting on their community and their environment whilst at the same time delivering great sporting achievements!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your local media pages and ask 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/services we can offer to our supporters. We will then give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us - if you want to run your own fundraising Crowdfunder to support us - 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. Any support of this type would be amazing!