Introduction
Identifying and addressing the barriers to females in ethnic miniorities accessing swimming provision in Hartlepool through a whole system approach.
What happened?
A female BME organisation approached TVS as they were having difficulties accessing appropriate pool time within Hartlepool for their community. There was a lot of friction between partners that had been built up for a variety of reasons. TVS facilitated a partnership meeting with the BME organisations, the LA re-settlement team, the local leisure centre team, the new leisure centre, Swim England and the PFC Trust to collectively identify and address the issues. The outcome of the meetings was the local leisure facility extending their opening hours x1 a month for female only family swim sessions for the BME community with female only staff and a much greater cultural understanding. Within the current cost of living crisis, the willingness for this partnership to achieve this is incredible. The aim is for Hartlepool to be the Tees Valley Hub for this type of session. The project was initially funded by PFC for 6 months with the aim for participants to then be self funding the programme and accessing the leisure facilities as independent community memebers. The partnership also enabled the BME community to develop relationships with the new lesiure centre team and provide insight in how to make the facility more accessible to their community. This project would not have happened without a solid relationship built on trust and confidence and the wide range of partners that were involved and commited to working together for long term change.
Who was involved?
BME Charity organisation, Local Authority Re-settlement Team, Local Authority Lesiure Team, PFC Trust, Swim England, PFC Trust, TVS.
The local authority leisure team's willingness to adapt and be flexible to the needs of the community were vital to this project along with the staff within the leisure centre understanding of the culture barriers to ensure a positive experience for community participations.
When?
This project was funded to be for 6 monthly sessions with the long term ambition that it is self sustaining following this. Through this project the understanding of cultural issues as well as service logistics will be long term and hopefully allow for further partnerships to flourish between BME communities and local authority leisure services.
Where?
Although the provision was specifically swimming, once participants had visited the leisure facility they were keen to explore other activities on offer such as badminton and the gym. This allowed for conversations to take place to respect cultural boundaries but also to actively encourage and support individual independence to aim for community integration. The leisure facility is based within a deprived area of Hartlepool with a high BME population, meaning location wise it is very accessible to this community. With word of mouth and positive experiences it is hoped that the leisure facility could become a hub for BME communities to access which supports the LA's aim of increasing participation within their leisure assets.
How?
Initially TVS was approached by the BME charity following a recommendation from Hartlepower (the local VDA). TVS took the lead to invite relevant organisations with a partnership ethos to work collectively together and all take a role and responsibility in identifying and addressing issues that they could control. The BME charity was responsible for recruiting and supporting community participants and the organisations were responsible for infrastructure, programme design and funding.
Why?
Swimming was identified by female BME community as the number one activity they would like to participate in. There were a number of barriers and issues that were stopping them from doing that had not been addressed.
So?
This project enabled:
1. Inactive BME females to become active
2. Improved family participation within swimming
3. The introduction of young BME females and males to swimming at a early stage to promote lifelong participation
4. The integration of participation within the community
5. Individual independance to access lesiure facilities
6. The development of a whole system approach partnership ethos
7. The provision of insight and understanding to cultural issues
8. Conversations to influence the development of new lesiure
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