WeSwim Old Street Disability Club
2
The Pitch
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Swimming Pool Hire | £2,228 |
| Project Manager | £750 |
Beneficiaries
100 people
Expected impact
Our sessions provide a combination of physical and mental benefits to our swimmers and volunteers alike. For some it provides an opportunity to focus on life changing strengthening and/or pain management exercises that are only possible in the supportive cocoon provided by water. For others it offers essential ‘social’ connections to combat loneliness and for some it provides an opportunity to simply swim in a safe, unintimidating environment. This is not a competitive ‘para’ swimming program, instead catering to swimmers that are not served by swimming clubs or public swim sessions. In addition to the benefits of our swimmers our sessions provide an opportunity for our volunteers to learn valuable life skills by working with our swimmers to support them physically and emotionally throughout the swimming sessions. The final benefit is to our swimmer's family members / carers who gain valuable time to themselves whilst the swimmers are in our sessions.
Track record
Two of our directors have both previously been involved the running of a similar disability swimming community in Victoria, London with our managing director, Tash, having chaired the club for over 10 years making her a leading expert in this type of community based disability swimming. Despite launching just before the COVID pandemic and subsequently having to close during it we have built two successful community clubs in London and have won a prestigious Toyota Parasport club of the month award - https://parasport.org.uk/may-club-month-2022-0. The award video, which was recorded by the British Paralympic Association also provides excellent examples of what the club means to our swimmers and volunteers alike - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8ZmkuSk1pI.