May Community News
Throughout the month of May we have been working with various community groups and partners to offer events and activities in our leisure centre that sit outside our usual leisure centre offering
Dementia event
On Monday 19th May Glass Mill Leisure Centre hosted a Dementia Awareness Day, this formed part of a week of activities that took place in various venues across the borough to celebrate Dementia Action Week.
10 stall holders, offering advice from falls prevention to other things happening in the borough were present to show what help and support exists in the borough for residents with Dementia or for those who look after someone who has the condition.
As part of the day there was a Line Dancing Class and a Dance for Dementia Class
Around 75 people attended this event throughout the day, with the Community Sports Manager giving a speech welcoming everyone to the centre, highlighting our Dementia Friends status and explaining our excitement to work with this group to ensure our venues are accessible to all. Other talks and networking took place throughout the day.
British Triathlon Swim Bike Run Mini
20 children aged between 6 and 14 years took part in our inaugural Swim Bike Run mini event at the Alex Yee Ladywell Arena. This sold out event gave the young people the opportunity to try a multi-sport event, with 80% of those attending never having previously done a multi-sport event. The event consisted of a 1km run, 5km cycle and another 1km run. The event was a huge success with lots of positive comments received by both the children that took part and the parents that spectated. We also received positive feedback about the centre and how professional the event was. The young people were cheered on by at least 20 parents and siblings
We hope to host another Run Bike Run during the school summer holidays.
Refugee Swim
Glass Mill hosted our second monthly Women’s Only refugee swim in partnership with the Refugee Council (and the third 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.
HAF football tournament
Hosted at The Bridge Leisure Centre and organised and run by Ballers Sports Coaching the centre hosted a HAF scheme football tournament. This tournament got together all of the football camps in the borough who receive HAF funding to run a multi age group football tournament. Football Domination and Sports Fun 4 All were two of the camps who provided teams to this tournament. Across the day and various age groups 300 people took part in the event. Catering was provided by a Caribbean food truck. The event was very successful with lots of positive comments received by parents and participants. Those taking part complimented Ballers on the smooth running of the day.
Parkinson’s Pole Walking
The last Friday of May saw the return of our Parkinson’s Pole Walking group who use Glass Mill as a meeting point and base for their led walks. After their walk those who attend the swim session, stayed at the centre for their weekly swim session
Lewisham Disability Sports Network
The group met twice this May firstly as the core working group to review the Easter programme which featured a holiday camp for SEND children at the Alex Yee Ladywell Arena and plan to for the summer. We then as the wider steering group. The steering group was also an opportunity for people to feedback on how they felt the Easter programme went and to share ideas for the summer programme. We are hoping to secure some funding to deliver a summer programme at the Alex Yee Ladywell Arena. In both meetings we also discussed the multi-sport fun day planned at Alex Yee Ladywell Arena on the 21st June.