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.
Bellingham Festival
The team at Bellingham Leisure & Lifestyle Centre, supported the annual Bellingham Festival. The team offered face painting, glitter tattoo’s on top of being there to promote the centre. The event was attended by local ward councillor and Ceremonial Mayor, Cllr Paschoud
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.
Community Cook Off
4 members of the Lewisham Management Team represented Better at the second Community Cook Off held on Cornmill Gardens next to Glass Mill Leisure Centre.
11 teams were competing for a silver serving dish, with the task being who could turn a selection of ingredients into a main with 2 sides. All teams were given a whole chicken to base their meal around.
The event was organised and run by the Met Police, and this is the second year the event has been held in Lewisham. Better were also represented at last year's event. Community Cook Off events were originally set up by the Met Police following the Grenfell Tower incident as a means of using food to get local communities to connect.
At the end of the event all unused fruit and veg was donated to Lewisham Local, who amongst other services also work with FoodCycle to turn unused/food going to waste into community meals via their community kitchen at the Irish Centre.
Team Lewisham prepared a BBQ flavoured spatchcock chicken on a bed of cayenne pepper infused peppers, tomatoes and garlic. With our two sides being a potato salad with mustard and onion infused crème fresh sauce and a feta salad.
Despite receiving lots of plaudits for our food, with many people coming to try it and complimenting us on our efforts it wasn’t enough to make the top 3. With the local school “Prender Chefs” being declared the overall winner.
The event was very successful with all those taking part enjoying themselves. The Met Police are already planning a bigger event in 2026.
GLL vs. Saving Souls Football Match
On Saturday 28th June, colleagues from GLL played in a friendly football match against local community partner Saving Souls.
Saving Souls deliver projects out of Bellingham Leisure & Lifestyle Centre, these projects range from a weekly foodbank, to supporting a Men's Mental Health group and running self defence classes for Women. Alongside this work they also work with a group of boys to get them playing football on a regular basis.
This football group is made up of boys aged 18-21 who may not be able to afford playing football regularly or have other barriers to them being able to join other teams. As such Saving Souls arranges matches for these boys to play in. The group of boys came from the Crossfield Estate in Deptford and came together through some work Saving Souls did with Better and Street Games.
GLL offered them a match to support with this work and provide them with an additional team to play. 10 colleagues from across the partnership took on this team. The GLL team consisted of the CSM, a GM, an FI and some lifeguards. We had the GM's son as a ringer and to provide some youthful energy up front.
After a tightly fought contest team GLL lost 9-6, unfortunately, their much larger squad, age and the weather ended up getting the better of us
Saving Souls were very happy that this match took part and thanked GLL for getting a team together and their support. Conversations have been had about future matches, possibly including a women's match.