Issue 13
EVERYWHERE
SPORT FOR ALL SPORTING CHAMPIONS AWARDS
COLLEAGUE CELEBRATION
WORKING TOGETHER
Hear from our fantastic
Read more about our new
Find out about the winners
colleagues helping deliver
facilities and partnerships
of our annual athlete awards
activity for all
event
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YO U R S O U R C E F O R T H E L AT E S T N E W S F R O M E V E R YO N E A C T I V E
Download the app at www.everyoneactive.com/everyone-on-demand-app
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A WORD FROM OUR AQUATICS & WELLBEING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE JACQUI TILLMAN
Jacqui’s experience in the industry spans more than 30 years, making her a true ambassador for leisure and activities. With plenty of exciting developments this year, Jacqui reflects on what we’ve achieved at Everyone Active: “It’s been an extremely busy end of the year for us, with lots of exciting developments and events across our business, capping a fantastic 2023. As a company that started out 36 years ago running a single site, it is fantastic to continue our growth across the country, now reaching more than 230 leisure and cultural facilities. Over the past months, we were delighted to be awarded new contracts including to operate the worldclass London Aquatics Centre, renowned for hosting major sporting events including the Olympics and Paralympics. The facility champions elite sport alongside swimming, diving and sports activities for the local community and we’ll be marking the new partnership by hosting the British Swimming Championships from 2nd to 7th April 2024. As a business, we remain unwavering in our commitment to providing leisure services and facilities tailored to the unique needs of local communities. We
take huge pride in offering opportunities for people of all ages, abilities and interests to engage in physical activity. To ensure we best support all individuals, we’re also delighted to be working with new partners, such as ReferAll, aiding the delivery of our health and wellbeing programmes. ReferAll’s easy-to-view dashboard provides an upto-date overview of all our health and wellbeing projects and their status, including details such as number of referrals received, uptake and completion rates. The task-based management system will help our colleagues and partners in the Integrated Care Systems deliver seamless programmes by receiving referrals from healthcare professionals. It will also include short, medium and long-term developments, which will further demonstrate the impact leisure can make to support the NHS by encouraging people to move more.”
Everyone Active Social Value is now over £220 million for the previous 12 months period, from November 2022 to October 2023.
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CELEBRATING OUR SPORTING CHAMPIONS SCHEME Launched in 2016, the Sporting Champions scheme has been responsible for more than £2 million worth of support to over 5,000 athletes across a huge variety of disciplines; from wheelchair basketballers and swimmers to artistic gymnasts and figure skaters. The programme has been designed to assist this country’s next generation of superstar athletes in making the most of their natural talents. Everyone Active Sporting Champions will benefit from access to fantastic training facilities at any of our 200-plus sports centres located all over the country, as well as to mentoring days throughout the year. These days are hosted by performance experts, including sporting superstars such as Colin Jackson CBE, Lauren Steadman MBE and Kadeena Cox, distributing their wisdom and knowledge, as well as encouraging the sharing of ideas between the athletes. This year, we’ve supported more than 1,200 athletes on the scheme and are looking forward to supporting more than 30 athletes at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics in 2024.
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SPORTING CHAMPIONS
AWARDS AND MENTORING DAY In November, we were delighted to host our Sporting Champions Awards and Mentoring day at Porchester Hall. We had an incredible 200 guests join us for the day including young up and coming athletes, Everyone Active colleagues and our partners from across the country. The occasion marked our first awards event since 2019 and we were honoured to have Great Britain’s double world 110m hurdles champion and former world record holder Colin Jackson hosting the day. We started the day off with mentoring sessions hosted by Olympic and Paralympic stars including Lutalo Muhammad, Richard Kilty, Maisie Summers-Newton, Kadeena Cox and Lauren Steadman, who shared their insights and experiences with the Sporting Champions. These sessions covered topics such as social media and media training, race day preparation and mental wellbeing and psychology in sport.
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We then celebrated the incredible achievements of the athletes with our Sporting Champions awards. We would love to congratulate all the shortlisted athletes and winners of the awards.
The winners are as follows:
Regional Champion of the Year for the East Region – Jaden Leo
Regional Champion of the Year for the South East Region – Jeantique Hommel
Regional Champion of the Year for the West Region – Freddie Sunderland
Everyone Active Team of the Year – Westway Sports and Fitness Centre
Social Media Champion of the Year – Felicia Miloro
Young Champion of the Year – Zachary Callinan
National Champion of the Year – Ondine Achampong
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With thanks to our sponsors of the event!
“What a privilege to sponsor the Sporting Champions Event 2023. It was a superb afternoon meeting inspirational Olympic champions and potential champions in the making! The dedication that everyone shows that are involved in the event is why this initiative is the success it is.” - Sponsor of the Sporting Champions Awards, Rachel Vincent, Director at VincentStokes
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CELEBRATING OUR COLLEAGUES! At Everyone Active, we’re proud to support our colleagues. From offering apprenticeships throughout the year to providing necessary training needed to help career progression, we’re as passionate about our people as we are about encouraging everyone to take part in activity.
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One of our key goals as a company is to celebrate colleagues’ success as they reach their career aspirations, such as the promotions for twins Rainer Meek and Elizabeth Spencer, who each became general managers at their respective centres. Below they give us an insight into their journey with Everyone Active so far and how they have come to achieve career success. General manager at Raich Carter Sports Centre, Rainer, said: “I first worked as a sales manager, using my experience as a gymnastics coach to train, coach, and develop membership consultants. I then relocated to Hetton and Houghton, and went on maternity leave before moving back to Raich in December 2019 as operations manager. “After my return, I attended a course which outlined the Emerging General Managers Programme (EGMP) and during my personal development plan, I discussed progressing to be a general manager. From there, I attended courses that were really helpful including insight training - they made me look at how I like to be managed, how I manage people, and areas I needed to improve, although coming from a sales background really helped me with the commercial aspect of being a GM. “I love the variety my role offers, and I really enjoy being able to develop colleagues and see them progress to the next stage of their career.” Elizabeth added: “I’ve been a general manager at Eston Leisure Centre for the last four and a half weeks, and I’m loving it! Before this role I was a sales and FOH manager in Sunderland and worked at Hetton Community Pool, Houghton Sports Centre, and Sunderland Aquatic Centre over the past eight years. “I had a year off work for maternity leave, returning to my role as sales and FOH manager in April 2022. As I’d been in my role for seven years at this point, I really wanted to progress my career with Everyone Active and so I applied for the 2022-2023 EGMP, completing this in September 2023. The course really helped as it gave me insight into all areas of becoming a general manager plus a two-week general manager work placement. When the GM role came up at Eston Leisure Centre, I jumped at the chance to apply!”
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NEW WELLNESS OFFERING HELPING US LEAD THE WAY IN THE INDUSTRY
For more information about HealthHero and the Everyone Wellness membership, visit the website here
We’ve delighted to have launched our unique Everyone Wellness membership, becoming the UK’s first leisure operator to offer fully integrated health support. With the integration of HealthHero into its membership benefits, we now offer customers access to a virtual GP service through video and phone consultations. Available seven days a week from 8am to 10pm, this service ensures quick and convenient access to practicing GPs.
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The new membership also gives customers access to a wide range of exclusive benefits to help with their mind, body and wellbeing. The new offering will include free guest passes, 14-day priority booking, free personal training and more than 120 offers and product savings from major brands in the wellness space. HealthHero, a provider with gold-standard clinical expertise, offers five million consultations annually and provides services to more than 30 million covered lives. All customers can receive advice, reassurance and, where appropriate, medication through the platform. By booking through the digital platform, customers can choose a time and day that suits them, whether to have a video or phone appointment, and to speak to a male or female doctor if preferred.
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www.everyoneactive.com/content-hub/join-membership/everyone-active-wellness-membership/
Our Regional Director, Duncan Jefford, said: “Our new Everyone Wellness membership is another significant step towards providing our customers with a 360-degree health and wellness offering. With over 230 facilities in the Everyone Active portfolio, this is an exciting opportunity to help make a significant difference and contribute to the health of local communities across the country. “The digital service provided by HealthHero, is aligned with our vision at Everyone Active to help support healthy lives. We look forward to working with HealthHero and delivering on our ambition is to ensure members are supported through all their goals including health, fitness and wellbeing.”
Aseem Sadana, HealthHero’s CEO for UK&I, said: “We are very excited to launch our partnership with Everyone Active. This partnership brings to life our company values of simplifying healthcare and improving lives by providing Everyone Active members with convenient access to experienced, practising GPs through phone and video consultations – giving them peace of mind whenever they need it.”
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WELCOMING NEW
PARTNERSHIPS AND FACILITIES The £1.1million refurbishment of four fitness suites at Middlesbrough Sports Village, Neptune Centre, Rainbow Leisure Centre and Eston Leisure Centre was completed in November. As part of this, the existing fitness suite at Guisborough Swim and Fitness Centre benefitted from a raft of updated equipment.
In September we took over delivery of park tennis across Sunderland, following a £403,000 investment in 17 courts across seven of the city’s parks. £332,000 of this funding came from the UK Government and LTA Tennis Foundation, with the remaining £71,000 coming from Sunderland City Council.
We’re delighted to be operator of the Jamie Brough Pavilion and football pitches at Papplewick Green in Hucknall on November 1. Work is already underway to convert two of the changing rooms into a studio space to run activities and classes.
Succesful launch of 6.3 million pound swimming pool at Eversley Leisure Centre The newly completed extension introduces a 25-metre, 4-lane swimming pool designed to cater to the diverse aquatic needs of the community. The new facilities are fully wheelchair accessible, with level access between the changing rooms and the pool, ensuring that all members of our community can enjoy the amenities without barriers
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IN THE NEWS AGE IS JUST A NUMBER Our AIJAN campaign was back for a third year in October and November, as we encouraged people of all ages to get active or try out a new activity this year. Over the two-month period of the campaign we promoted senior sessions through in-centre posters, weekly comms, social media content and internal colleague communication. We saw a positive increase across both senior activities and senior swimming.
123% INCREASE IN SENIOR SWIMMING 135% INCREASE IN SENIOR ACTIVITIES MORE THAN 30,000 SENIOR PEOPLE GETTING ACTIVE!
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LOCAL HEALTH SUPPORT GROUP FOR MEN RECEIVES FURTHER FUNDING
Designed by Juanita Prescott, Activity and Wellbeing Manager at Everyone Active, the course is delivered by Tom Pena, Mindfulness and Lifestyle Coach and part of the Exercise Referral team at Everyone Active.
A local group to support men’s mental and physical health has received further funding, allowing the club to be free for all members until March 2025.
“The evidence is clear that when it comes to mental and physical wellbeing, men are far less likely to seek help than women,” says Juanita. “Our mission is to reduce this stigma as much as possible by offering a safe space where men can discuss their concerns, whatever they may be.
Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre, managed in partnership with Stevenage Borough Council, launched the Men’s Club in 2022 within its Healthy Hub as part of the county council’s suicide prevention plan.
“With men who have attended the course reporting reduced levels of anxiety and pain levels as well as experiencing better-quality sleep, we know our Men’s Club is making a positive difference to the community.”
REDCAR LEISURE CENTRE SUPPORTS THOSE LIVING WITH DEMENTIA
Various activities take place which cater for participants’ needs, such as tabletop games, badminton, and short tennis. There is also a picture quiz and a chair-based exercise class, with the session being the brainchild of duty manager John Rennison and GP referral coordinator Ian Hall.
Redcar and Cleveland Leisure and Community Heart, run in partnership with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, started ‘Everyone is Friendly’ class last month to help support the physical and mental health of those living with dementia.
“Our aim is to provide an inclusive offering for people from across the community, so everyone has the chance to get active and improve their physical and mental health.”
Those living with dementia and their carers or partners can come along, with the class currently attracting 22 people.
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The club takes form in a regular four-week course and allows men to enjoy facilities including use of the gym and studio classes at Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre.
David Arundell, Everyone Active’s general manager, said: “It has been fantastic to watch Everyone is Friendly enjoy so much success since launch and we are confident it will continue to flourish.
Everyone is Friendly takes place on Thursdays from 1pm-2.20pm. Entry is free and the centre just asks for a small donation to Dementia UK, Everyone Active’s charity partner.
If you have any questions about this newsletter or would like to offer any ideas about how we can improve it, please email: newsletter@everyoneactive.com