I Will If You Will offers £24k to local fitness projects

I Will If You Will (IWIYW), the female fitness movement in Bury which has helped more than 7,500 women and girls get more active in 2014, is launching its Community Fund for a second year.

A total of £24,000 has been made available, offering local groups and clubs the chance to bid for up to £1,000 each towards things such as venue hire, equipment costs, coaching or publicity. Groups which support the IWIYW movement by encouraging women and girls to carry out 30 minutes of exercise per week are being encouraged to apply.

Whether it’s a dance workshop or charity walking group, the scheme invites any group to get involved, as long as the proposal will help local women and girls to try new things and be more active, more often.

Funding is available to help community groups from any of the six towns in the borough of Bury – Bury, Prestwich, Radcliffe, Ramsbottom, Tottington and Whitefield.

Last year’s round of funding supported a wide variety of projects including Bury Dragons Diving Club, Jinnah Day Care Centre and Bury Hockey Club.

One group in particular which benefitted from funding was Hunters Hill TRA, a kickboxing club based in Bradley Fold. The organisation applied for funding to help launch a ‘Muay Thai for Mums’ kickboxing class.

Thanks to the IWIYW funding, a Saturday afternoon class was launched for the mums of children already attending a kids training session. The funding covered the women’s session fees as an incentive for the first 12 weeks, as well as allowing the club staff to invest in gloves and skipping ropes suitable for women.

Julie Leech, Hunters Hill TRA club treasurer, said: “I was made aware of the IWIYW funding on the website after I looked up Muay Thai and saw there wasn’t currently a facility available.

“We had concerns about the equipment being unsuitable for women, which is why we applied for funding to make the sport more accessible. We’re so grateful for the funding, which has made all this possible.”

Liz Saunders, programmes support manager at Bury Council, said: “Thanks to the IWIYW Community Fund, some really inspiring groups and clubs gained financial assistance last year which really helped to improve local access to physical activity.

“The IWIYW movement strives to inspire women to get together, make a change and be more active, more often. With local groups on board we can achieve this aim together.”

To apply for a grant of up to £1,000 or to find out more, contact Liz Saunders at Bury Council on 0161 253 6357,email e.saunders@bury.gov.ukor visit www.iwillifyouwill.co.uk/communityfund. Applicants will be notified within 6-8 weeks.

All applications will be assessed on a case by case basis by a panel of representatives from Bury Council, Bury Sport and Physical Activity Alliance and Health Watch and Sport England. Particular attention will be paid to how the activity will increase the number of women and girls regularly taking part in sport or physical activity.

To find out more about the IWIYW Locality Fund, please visitwww.iwillifyouwill.co.uk/communityfund.

ENDS

Press release issued: 5 May 2015.

Picture: Ladies who pack a punch - ladies from Hunters Hill TRA, who received funding from IWIYW last year, with their instructor John Taylor, a former British champion kickboxer and World Title runner-up.

Note to editors:

I Will If You Will is a programme designed to help the women and girls of Bury get more active, more often. It aims to overcome the many practical barriers to being active, while encouraging women to support each other by joining the I Will If You Will community.

Phase one of the campaign was delivered by Bury Council with £2.3 million of National Lottery funding from Sport England. For phase two of the campaign, Sport England has allocated a further £2 million to extend delivery over the next two years up to December 2016.

I Will If You Will is a programme focused on changing women and girls’ behaviours towards taking part in sport and physical activity with the aim of getting more women and girls being more active, more often, and helping improve the health and wellbeing of people in Bury.

In doing so the ambition is to create a guide on how to practically go about engaging with women and girls locally and the implications of doing so.