In 2023, our team at Ladywood Leisure Centre in Birmingham, UK, partnered with non-profit organisations to provide free swimming and activity programmes for local asylum seeker and homeless communities.
In late 2022, the team won the 'Community Involvement' category at the UK National Fitness Awards. In 2023, they made an incredible effort to clear the bar that they had already raised for themselves.
"We take our role in the community very seriously," says Dawn Page, Deputy Partnership Manager, Serco Leisure. "Yes, we're a business, but we're also an open access hub serving the local area, like a hospital or library. Local social services have a base here; the National Health Service runs services here; our Community Room is a free space; our Community Engagement Officer is dedicated to strengthening relationships across the district. This is one of the most deprived areas in England – we can't expect to succeed without putting the community first."
Following a successful bid to secure funding, our colleagues worked with the Birmingham Children's Trust to offer 12 months of free swimming lessons to unaccompanied asylum seeker children in the Birmingham care system.
"We really value the partnership with Serco," said Alex Hillman of the Birmingham Children’s Trust. "Not only for choosing to work with us on this project, but for being able to make such a massive difference for our young people. Swimming is a valuable life skill and giving them the opportunity to learn to swim for free is huge. We look forward to continuing the partnership and getting more of our young people into swimming."
At the same time, the Serco Ladywood team starting working with InUnity – a local youth charity – to engage a local homeless community in a more active lifestyle. Specifically, they focused on hundreds of people living in neighbouring temporary accommodation:
"There are so many families in temporary accommodation – some with multiple children," says Dawn. "Children who are not in mainstream education; children whose first language is not English; children with disabilities and additional needs; children under child protection orders. Many never set foot outside while they wait for council housing to become available."
The Serco/InUnity challenge was to encourage these families into the leisure centre where they could learn to live again – socialising and engaging in physical activity. Through the resulting 'summer holiday camp' programme, dozens of children and their parents were given the opportunity to use the centre facilities, free of charge:
The Ladywood team also made sure to educate their visitors about all the free services regularly available at the centre:
"Through our 'Be-active' scheme, local asylum seekers and anyone with a Birmingham postcode can access our facilities, for free, for an hour every day. Our community programmes and open days often help them build the confidence to walk through our doors. Some do keep coming back, which is fantastic."
Hannah Brooman, CEO of InUnity, said:
“On behalf of all the young people we represent, we’re very grateful to Dawn and her colleagues for their kindness and support. We have been banging on doors across Birmingham to make something like this happen; Dawn was the first person who really listened and engaged. Her commitment to driving meaningful community outcomes is inspiring. She leads with her heart and that’s exactly what the community needs. The team were incredibly accommodating and adaptive, responding with levels of ‘can do’ empathy and understanding that we don’t often encounter. It can be challenging to work with these families, but the team took it all in their stride. We were really pleased with the results and look forward to continuing our relationship with Serco at Ladywood Leisure Centre.”
Most recently, our colleagues have been participating in a new and unprecedented pilot scheme, 'Active Families', in a partnership with Birmingham City Council and the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at University of Birmingham. The Active Families pilot will give 300 families the opportunities to access fitness and leisure facilities that multiple, intersecting barriers and disadvantages might otherwise prevent – including free exclusive membership for a year to all nine leisure centres operated by the Birmingham Community Leisure Trust in partnership with Serco.