Derbyshire Village Games is helping to pilot a whole new way of helping people get fitter and more active by not only developing but also promoting sports sessions, classes and activities right on the doorstep in villages throughout the Bolsover District.

The Active Bolsover District Project (www.activebd.co.uk) is a partnership between Bolsover Village Games, Bolsover District Council Sport Development, Bolsover Wellness and Derbyshire NHS PCT.  Bolsover Village Games Officer, Laura Stephen said:

“The Active Hub Project is a really exciting idea - it’ll be a one-stop shop for health and fitness focussed on small communities.  We started with Active Tibshelf as a pilot.  That was a big success and now has a community group behind it, driving it forwards.  We moved into Creswell over the summer promoting the new activities put on by the Parish Council and Children’s Centre. The summer sessions really took off with some getting up to 30 people coming along every week.  Now we’re expanding it to Bolsover, Clowne, Creswell, Shirebrook and South Normanton and Pinxton.”

"The aim is to promote what's already going on and help clubs and coaches to get more people to come along.  Then we’ll help identify what’s missing - what local people want and give communities the support they need to get new classes and sessions up and running.  And we’ll bring all the information together in one place on our website and with Active Leaflets so people can easily see what’s on, where and when.”

For Derbyshire Village Games Project Manager Hayley Lever sustainability is the key:

“The hub brings together all the information about sports and activity sessions in a community in one place.  By working together the Council, sporting organisations, health authorities & local clubs, village halls, community centres and schools creates a programme of activities that’s easy for local people to pick and choose from.  There could even be scope to develop this into a ground-breaking model for a community social enterprise.”

There will be two main programmes each year one after October half term and one in April. 

The first launch of all 6 hubs will be after October Half term 2011 (w/c 31st Oct) when the leaflets will begin to be distributed to every household. 

The website (www.activebd.co.uk) will also be launched at this time.

[Source:  Community Sports Trust]