Community Gym opens in Willowfield Church Halls
Willowfield Parish Community Association (WPCA) has opened a free Community Gym in the church’s recently refurbished hall complex.
The gym was a dream awaiting funding but still, the church agreed to give the project space in the halls and set aside a former office.
Two days before the halls reopened, funding was awarded by the Belfast Health Development Unit and the fully equipped gym was officially launched last week.
David Jardine, ‘Moving Forward’ Coordinator for WPCA, explained that the vision was to engage more with the local community and to give them the benefits of a fitness facility.
“The gym is used by all sorts of people and by different groups throughout the week. We’re connected with Willowfield Parish 10th Old Boys Football Team which trains there and parents can use the gym while their children are at the kids programmes in the hall. I work specifically with 18–25 year olds so it’s a chance to get them engaged and improving their physical activity.”
John Menagh, WPCA’s Outreach Coordinator (right) said: “We’re always promoting health and fitness but usually most of the time it’s the people who are most in need who aren’t benefitting from it.
“This facility is focussed mainly for people who, number one, don’t have the means to go and join a big gym and also for people who wouldn’t have the confidence to go and join a big gym; people who want to change their life around, who want to get fitter, who want to change their eating habits but they don’t know where to start and this gives them somewhere to come. I can work along with them and give them advice and just help them in that path.”
Kim Kensett, representing the funders, said that being at the heart of the community and being a small gym were two important strengths of the project:
“The people that we’re trying to target are people who don’t normally participate in physical activity. It may be that they have a fear of walking into a large gym amongst people that already exercise and this is a good way to get them over the door and to build their confidence.
“This project is very important because it’s right on the doorstep of those people in the community, something that’s close for them, and then they get to know one another. A social project will build from that and then it will sustain into the future.”
Gym user, Brian Hume, agreed: “The key word is it’s free and also gives you the opportunity to meet up with people. You would do say, 15 or 20 minutes in the gym, and then you’d go out for a cup of tea and a chat and it’s really really good.”
To get the gym up and running, staff members and volunteers had to go through Level 2 Fitness Instructors training, and this is ongoing so that the facility can be used to capacity.
Laurence Bellew Children’s Work Coordinator for WPCA, is a personal trainer in the Community Gym and is also qualified to teach physical activity to children.
“We run a kids’ gym during the week so we have a lot of special equipment that came from America, specially designed for kids, he said.”
Laurence also developed and runs, Life Guards, a 6 week healthy heart programme that teaches kids to look after their physical and mental well–being. The programme has run in 29 schools in Belfast and further afield and involved nearly 4000 children.
The gym was featured on NvTv. Start watching at 1:31.
Focal Point Wednesday 22 November 2017 from Northern Visions NvTv on Vimeo.