June Community News
This month across the borough we have attended a variety of events and supported local groups and organisations to ensure the leisure centres continue to be part at the heart of the community.
We have met with groups such as the Autism network, to raise awareness of the centres and see what can done to support people with Autism in the borough. We also met with London Sport and the Fellowship Inn to see how we can work together to get T1 tag rugby up and running at Bellingham Leisure & Lifestyle Centre.
Lewisham Obesity Alliance
For the first time since Covid the Lewisham Obesity Alliance met in person. There had been previous meetings which had taken place online. It was an opportunity for the group to discuss the goals and objectives of the alliance and its relevance, as well as plan for future meetings. We also looked at the strategic direction of the group going forwards as well. As a leisure provider it’s important for us to showcase the benefits of physical activity and promote services such as Healthwise to get people into physical activity as part of achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Careers Event with LBL/DWP
Better were invited to have a stall and give a presentation about working in leisure.
Close to 1,000 people passed through the doors on the day with 30 people attending the talk on working in leisure.
We used this event to raise awareness of the vacancies we had, general roles in leisure and the wider support network as well as entry routes into leisure and qualifications needed.
We have been invited to another careers fair at the Civic Suite in August
Age without limits – POSAC event
The team at Bellingham represented Better at the Age Without Limits event at the Fellowship Inn which was organised and run by the Positive Ageing Council (POSAC).
This event was an opportunity for us to promote our Older Adult timetable and speak to older residents about the leisure centres more broadly
Refugee Swim
Glass Mill hosted our third monthly Women’s Only refugee swim in partnership with the refugee council (and the fourth one of the year). As part of this swim those in the pool also have access to a female swimming teacher to help them build water confidence. 8 women attended this session which is an increase on last month and we hope by having the session more regularly this number will increase. The sessions are run in partnership with the Refugee Council who fund this session.
SEND Multi-Sport Day
This month saw the annual inclusive multi sports day event take place at the Alex Yee Ladywell Arena. 64 young people took part in this event. 100 people were registered but many didn’t turn up due to the very hot weather on the day. The event was supported by many groups such as Aquila Taekwondo, South East London Tennis and Wheels for Wellbeing. The event was organised and run by Access Sport.