Aspire's Gym Bus: overcoming disadvantage through sports & physical activity (360G-OCF-A499192)

We are going to launch Oxfordshire's first ever "Gym Bus" to take sports and physical activity sessions to highly disadvantaged women across the county to provide them with essential early intervention support and help them take their first steps towards positive life changes such as work experience, training, employment, volunteering and secure housing. The bus will travel to areas of deprivation across Oxfordshire such as Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys in Oxford city, Berinsfield and Banbury and will target community centres, recovery hubs and children's centres. Former Aspire clients who have benefited from our Active Body Healthy Mind programme will run sports sessions such as boxercise, kettlebells, yoga and football and will encourage clients to engage with Aspire about longer term support, too. We will also offer clients the chance to gain sporting qualifications and run their own sports session out in the community, thereby expanding the project's impact. In total it's expected that the Gym Bus will reach 200 women in the first year. The bus has been generously donated by Oxford Bus Company and the gym equipment has been donated by W Lucy Properties. We would like to ask for funding to cover the refurbishment costs of the bus, the costs of running sports sessions and the cost of 10 sporting qualifications.