CSP: Merseyside Sports Partnership
Porject: SisterHub Rolla- Fitness
Partners involved: Merseyside Sports Partnership, Fire Fit Toxteth, Toxteth Youth Board, Wheels Extreme CIC
Target audience: 11-25yrd olds Muslim females (but not exclusive to Muslim females)
Activity used: Roller skating
Number of young people engaged and impacted upon: 30+ ladies engaged in the project, but this project helped change the life of a young woman in Toxteth
Describe the impact this project had on the individual and group participants involved:
Kusquam was new to Liverpool, her family having recently moved to Britain. As for any 14 year old moving to a new area, it was a challenge to hit the ground running and fully settle into their new surroundings. Kusquam attended a local secondary school, but did not engage much in community activities or after school sessions. The Fire Fit Toxteth is a youth centre at the heart of one of Merseysides most challenging areas (top 10% most deprived in England) which engages a wide range of young people. Kuaqaum attended the centre but did not engage in any of the activities, sessions or clubs which were on offer. MSP engaged a range of key community partners to target a gap in community sport/active leisure provision and create a new females only project. As a participant in this project, Kusqaum was able to build her confidence, esteem and become more involved with her peers. From this Kusqaum has settled into a new community, made many friends and become an active volunteer in sport and acts a local voice for other young females on the Toxteth Youth Board.
Q1. How did MSP use insight to create the project from nothing and obtain customer (partner) and consumer (participant) buy in?
Merseyside Sports Partnership worked with Fire Fit Toxteth to understand their audience and identify gaps in provision. We knew that by understanding Fire Fits offer, its customer and Sport Englands Youth Insight that we could identify gaps in their ‘market’ and provision; and ultimately create a project which fills those gaps and engages the functional inactive young person. The Fire Fit engaged a lot of young people from Muslim communities. Whilst there were many Muslim young people coming to the centre, we discovered that there was a low engagement rate of young Muslim females in activity. There was a demand for something new; something completely female orientated something fun and functional which engaged a wide range of abilities and fitness types. Through consulting with Fire Fits young people and Toxteth Youth Board, a roller disco type activity seemed to be the right choice for their needs. Whilst Muslim women was the main target audience, this session was marketed as ladies only through SisterHub branding and thusly engaged a wide range of ladies from across the community.
Q2. Can we demonstrate that the project achieved and succeeded on our customer and consumers expectations?
The project broke down barriers for the community, providing an environment in which ladies could interact with one. It provided an alternative offer for active leisure in the community, away from sport, and as such engaged the inactive, functional young person.
With regards to Kusqaum; Kusquam, did not have many friends due to moving schools and was struggling to integrate into her new community and lacked confidence as well as belief in herself. Kusquam was encouraged to join the SisterHub group & was then directed to attend the Rolla-Fitness project so she could meet other young women from the same community.
Kusqaum was inactive and extremely shy when she first started attended the skating sessions. Rolla-Fitness provided an environment which encouraged Kusqaum to socialise more with similar young women and as such it brought her out of her shell a little more and as the weeks went by Kusqaum began to become more active in the community in which she lived.
Not just physically active: We had created a project in which Kusquam’s confidence and behaviour towards active leisure had changed and the personal benefits Kusquam had gained from this project - due to her increased confidence - led her to becoming an active volunteer in her community and a voice for other inactive young women in her community. Since attending the project Kusqaum has grown in confidence and has made many friends. Through encouragement, support and guidance Kusquam is now a valued member of the Toxteth Youth Board; she attends sessions regularly and is actively making decisions on other youth related activity within the centre & community. She has made many friends and there has been a big improvement in confidence, commitment, enthusiasm and effort that she applies to everything she asserts herself too. Alongside the other benefits she is now active and attends a mixture of physical activity sessions on a weekly basis.
Q3. What part did MSP play in creating this from nothing and bring partners together – in particular, how did we influence and co-ordinate the project?
Merseyside Sports Partnership have been closely connected with the Fire Fit for many years, we collaborate with them to create a lot of their programmes and services in partnership with them. We worked with them over a number of months to understand their customers, identify gaps and build tactics to create a well-rounded service based on their customer need. We led on insight, utilised some local funding and engaged Wheels Extreme CIC into the project. Merseyside Sports Partnership was the lynch pin which brought and kept the stakeholders of this project together.
Q4. How was this project innovative? What products were created? What makes it stand out?
There wasn’t a truly ‘female only’ session in this area of Liverpool, thusly no opportunity for young Muslim women and women who didn’t want to participate in mixed sessions to consume their active leisure. We created an environment which belonged to females. The coach and activators were female, the sports hall and surrounding area of the building was cut off to all males, including centre staff. Fire Fit have created three products from the project: a) sustained the ladies only Rolla-Fitness, b) created a mixed roller disco for a wider audience and c) created a diverse SisterHub activity brand for Toxteth. We feel that this project stands out due to the success of engaging a wide variety of females who had never been brought together before, but mostly for the impact it has had on Kusqaums role within her community. It has brought her from being an introvert to a pro-active volunteer who now speaks up for those who do not currently have a voice in a noisy and challenging part of Liverpool.
Q5. How can we demonstrate sustainability and continued development - what tactics did we put into place?
We engaged the Fire Fit Youth Board, Fire Fit activators and management, and Wheels Extreme CIC to create the project. The sustainability of the project was helped by Satellite Club investment which bought much needed equipment (the original project hired equipment). From this the Fire Fit Centre was able to continue with the Rolla-Fit sessions and create a roller disco for a wider audience. The brand itself has also been sustained and developed. The SisterHub brand now includes other sessions aimed at inactive females; yoga, zumba boxercise and circuit training: ensuring there is a pathway for progression from inactivity to a varied active lifestyle.