Active Town WINNERS Announced!!

Whitchurch Everybody Active Every Day town competition and public vote took place on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th August.  Nearly 650 people came along to vote and a huge thank you to the people of Whitchurch for supporting these local projects.

The winners of the competition are:

Beechtree Community Centrebeechtree-community-centre

Beechtree Community Centre can help inactive people in Whitchurch to improve their physical and social well-being through existing activities such as Walking for Health, Extend Exercise, Healthy Eating, Arts and Crafts and Community Garden, and the setting up of new activities such as Mens Walking Football and Men in Sheds. We want to get everyone active.

To enable access to these activities the Beechtree Centre can proactively engage with GP surgeries, NHS health services, such as physiotherapy, falls prevention, housing support officers and mental health teams so that they have the information and links to sign-post patients to providers. We can actively go out and engage with individuals and provide personal support to make it happen. Contact James on 01948 666612 for more info.

Chester Road Bowling Clubphoto Bowling, Get Fit Keep Fit 1

Chester Road Bowling Club has a friendly family atmosphere, new members of all ages and abilities are welcome. Beginners will be helped and instructed in the game by volunteers. Bowling is a very social sport for all ages and abilities. It is very good exercise and a sport for all ages to “get and keep fit and active”. The club has 22 teams in 6 different leagues from beginners to premier league. There is something for everyone from social bowling to playing in a team. Come along on a Monday afternoon at 1pm and meet other new members and “have a go”. For more information call the Club on 01948 664463.

Glototsphoto Glo Tots 3

The project ‘GLOTOTS’  (Tot-tastics) is aimed at children under 4 years old and their parent or carer.  The weekly hour session is a mini gym and active play session which incorporates singing, dancing and games too. It encourages children to explore new movement, through balancing, rolling, jumping, crawling and more by investigating the equipment in a fun way, which in turn instils life skills into children and gets adults active too. Tot-tactics is open for anyone to attend and is a fun, friendly and informal session.  It is a great starting point for an active life and for children to get involved with physical activity.  The funding will help to buy new equipment for the group, to keep the sessions fresh, fun and interesting. Call 07791 358844 for info.

Queensway Playing Fields AssociationQueensway Car Boot Sale

Queensway Playing Fields Association is a registered charity which manages the Queensway playing fields in Whitchurch. Working in partnership with Meres & Mosses Landscape Partnership and Whitchurch Allotment Society the park is undergoing changes, including a new community orchard.

Kingsway Court is a sheltered housing scheme with 30+ bungalows for elderly and disabled and a Community Centre. Some of the bungalows and the Community Centre back onto Queensway playing fields – all the bungalows are within close proximity. At present the nearest pedestrian access to the fields is 250 metres away along a reasonably busy road.

The funding will pay to put in a self-closing gate at the side of the community centre enabling direct access to Queensway Playing Fields. The Association will also put a pathway through the orchard with a bench at top and bottom of path.

This project will provide an easy walk for residents and enable them to take family or carers when they visit. The gate and path will be wheelchair friendly thereby making access to the park easier and encouraging inactive people to become more active.

Ramped CICphoto Ramped

Ramped CIC is a rider-lead organisation that looks to bring wheeled activity (skateboarding, BMX and scooter riding) to local communities.  Operated by trained Youth Workers, Ramped uses a Mobile Skatepark and is able to provide Bikes, Skateboards, Scooters and safety equipment so that anyone can have a go.

We collaborate with participants to develop Skatepark layouts that either challenge or consolidate skills, and we deliver jams where people meet to ride and is more about social inclusion and less about winning.

We utilise social media to maintain contact and connect participants with one another, creating the long term benefit of being part of a wider community.

Funding of £5000 will be utilised to deliver a series of “Jams” in Whitchurch for people to become more active and ride together. Visit Facebook page ‘Ramped CIC’

Whitchurch Youth Clubphoto Centre NE Youth group

Whitchurch Youth Club.  This project will provide fun active sessions to support young people to become more active. Through participation in this project young people in years 6-11 can increase their confidence and self-esteem which will help them to access other organisations that promote becoming more active.

The project will offer dance workshops, it’s a knock out competition during half term and will purchase new equipment to enable fun active workshops for young people in the local community.

The fun workshops we offer will include sumo suit fun, laser tag, table tennis, badminton, bubble football; footballs for the sports area behind Centre North East and bike locks to ensure young people can ride their bikes to the centre and leave them securely.

All the workshops are very active but are not overtly competitive, therefore young people have lots of fun taking part, encouraging them to become more active in a safe environment and participate in various active workshops.

Contact Kerry at Shropshire Youth Association 01743 730005  or visit Youth sessions on Tuesday (Juniors years 6-8) and on Thursdays (Seniors years 9-11).

Time TogetherPhoto Time Together

Time Together is a group run twice a month for 2 hours on Wednesday afternoons. It is for people with memory loss or dementia plus their family members or carers.

This group of people within our community are in need of support: it can be difficult to attend other groups of any kind because of the issues surrounding memory loss or dementia.

Time Together is staffed by volunteers from church congregations and others; led by the Revd Judy Hunt. The group started in March 2016 and has been welcomed by participants and those with expertise in this area, including the NHS Memory Service, the local Alzheimer’s Society staff and staff from Age UK.

Currently Time Together use one room of Bargates Hall and sessions are sedentary, ie, crafts, art work, quizzes and singing. The funding will enable Time Together to hire the second hall at Bar-gates and purchase some indoor games equipment to increase the level of physical activity for the group members.

Recently, Time Together has entered into partnership with Age UK and they can fund leaders of some more active sessions occasionally, eg, tea dances, but in order to do this we need to hire the extra room.

For more information contact the Church office on 01948 665413

Whitchurch Leisure CentreWhitchurch-Leisure-Centre-Logo-300x200

Whitchurch Leisure Centre.  Our aim is to make getting active fun and achievable for all, from those who have been active in the past and fallen out of the habit to those who have previously shied away from physical activity. Our goal is to provide an inclusive environment for exercise, one that offers a sense of community, free from stigma. We plan to offer 12 weeks of low-cost activity taster sessions – activities that are easy for individuals of all ages to get involved in, such as walking football, table tennis, touch tennis and badminton. Based on interest, we hope to continue to make these activities available once the project ends.

Run by trained leisure centre staff, the sessions will be suitable for families too, to en-sure younger individuals get into the habit of exercising from an early age and also to re-move barriers that may otherwise be put up to parents who want to exercise but find time constraints and childcare needs get in the way. In this way, all inactive members of the community stand to benefit.

For more information about the Leisure Centre activities, call John on 01948 660660

Please contact each organisation direct to find out more and join in to keep active.

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