A Burnley and Padiham sport and physical activity project set up to get more women active has received a massive cash injection by Sport England.
The ‘Girls Up and Active’ programme, has been set up by the Calico Group following their £164,220 of funding from Sport England being obtained.
This programme, in partnership with Burnley Leisure and Burnley Council, will help provide low cost activities for women and girls in the South-West Burnley area, and Padiham.
The cheque was presented at the project launch event last week at the Valley Street Community Centre, which invited partner organisations to network and pledge to become more active.
Andrea Pilling, Burnley Leisure’s project activator and lead for ‘Girls Up and Active’, said:” We are absolutely delighted to receive funding from the Community Sport Activation Fund, which will allow us to develop our sport and physical activity offer to girls and women over the next three years.
“Working in partnership with the Calico Group, we will offer a selection of sports and physical activity sessions ranging from netball, football, rounders, buggy bootcamp, Metafit, a selection of fitness classes and much more.
“A particular focus of the project is to remove barriers to exercise, so we’ll make sure the sessions are informal, accessible and social, providing women with every opportunity to make friends and have fun.”
As well as meeting at weekly sessions, women will be able to share their stories and encourage one another on their paths to fitness on social media.
This project is one of around 40 projects across the country to secure a share in £8.2 million of funding to support grassroots sport activity across the country.
Only a total of four projects in Lancashire received grants from the Community Sport Activation Fund.
Derek Kettlewell, head of new business for the Calico Group said: “We are very happy to have received the funding from Sport England to set up ‘Girls Up and Active’ with the help of Burnley Leisure and Burnley Council. There is a real need to promote the importance of exercise in our communities and the benefits this can have on our health and wellbeing.”
“Our ‘Girls Up and Active’ programme aims to be accessible for those taking part from the locations in our communities, through the use of community centres and schools for classes, as well as the times being arranged around school drop offs, and evenings after work. I am sure that these classes will be very successful and a great way to create and strengthen relationships within the communities.”
The three-year project is set to roll out in January 2016 and will work closely with Lancashire Sport, NHS, local businesses, local community groups, Volunteer Burnley, local schools, Burnley Rounders Club and Netball clubs, and many more organisations to make this project a success.
For more information about the project, please contact our Get in2 team on 01282 477167 or email getin2@burnley.gov.uk .
