Link4Life Impact Report 2019-2020

IMPACT REPORT A Year in Review 2019-20

2.2m

visits to Link4Life

4,200 Link4Life is a charity based at the heart of Rochdale inspiring people to live happier, healthier lives through culture, leisure and sport.

I am extremely proud to share with you some of our key highlights during 2018-19 and to be able to demonstrate the positive impact we’ve made to people’s lives.

Covid-19, creates uncertainty for everyone. The future will be different. We, as a charity will change because you, our community and partners, will need different things from us. We will be listening to you, talking with you and sharing this time together to adapt what we do and how we do it. With your help and guidance we will emerge more determined than ever before.

But for now, I invite you to join us in celebration of a year shared with our amazing communities full of moments of fun, friendship and achievement.

local residents benefitted from concessions accessed through the ‘Your Link4Life Extra’ card; an increase of 35% on the previous year, each beneficiary saved £81 on average

Link4Life supports first ever Rochdale in Rainbows ‘Pride’ with programme of performances and events

Skills4Sport

32,000 hours of volunteer support for culture, events, sports and health programmes

60 people gained qualifications through Skills4Sports and Skills4Arts courses

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OCTOBER

319 individuals gained skills and confidence through volunteering

APRIL Launch of Prehab4Cancer in partnership with GM Active

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Everything we do is driven by our mission to help our local community live healthier and more enriched lives.

It also means that, instead of having shareholders, we invest what we earn back into our facilities, our team and services that benefit our communities.

Stand Out Events 2019/20

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The Year in Numbers

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Introduction

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OCTOBER 13 local people graduate from the Skills4Sport programme, having trained and gained skills through delivery support for the summer holiday programme

Lady Katherine is officially launched at Hollingworth Lake

MAY

JULY Newruz/New Day exhibition opens at Touchstones

JUNE Essential Companions Scheme launched for shows and events

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST

Middleton Arena investment programme announced including new poolside sauna and steam room, consultation rooms and energy efficiency / technical upgrades

Link4Life produces Rochdale Borough Sports and Culture Awards to recognise sporting and cultural achievement in the Borough

6,000 young people attend school holiday programmes

AUGUST

FEBRUARY 2020

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Frankenstein - First West End Production opens at Middleton Arena

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JULY Link4Life co-produces FeelGood Festival Family Programme

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Touchstones Rochdale wins Visit England ‘Welcome’ Award

DECEMBER

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MARCH 2020

Dippy on Tour opens attracting 115,000 visitors in 5 weeks

Rochdale Leisure Centres scores ‘Very Good’ in its first national Quest Assessment

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Cinderella Pantomime launched at Middleton Arena

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FEBRUARY 2020

Fit and Fed tackles holiday hunger. 3150 young people attended, with an average of 630 meals distributed per week

AUGUST

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‘Very Good’

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NLHF confirm £159,000 funding to support Dippy on Tour

MARCH 2020

MARCH 2020

Lowry on Tour project commences to local schools

Link4Life redeploy frontline staff to help with Covid-19 community response

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Rochdale Walking Football Club players represent over 70’s North West Squad

MAY Free Community Big Games events at Heywood Civic Centre & Hollingworth Lake Activity Centre

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APRIL

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APRIL

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your health

During the year, sessions Healthy delivered included Workforce 503 Programme health MOT’s

Our healthy workforce programme, delivered in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council, engaged employers in healthy workforce initiatives including awareness raising, health MOT’s, workplace exercise and healthy eating advice.

Over 1.8 million leisure centre visits

497

advice sessions

114

referrals made to GP’s

16% 16% of these visits from those aged 0-16.

Including junior health & fitness memberships, Beth Tweddle gymnastics and Swim Academy swimming lessons

14% 14% of visits from those aged 55 and over

Youth Provision Targeted youth provision outside of school reached 6,416 young people during the year.

A total of 2,200 targeted sessions were delivered providing activities such as ‘Go4It’ - high energy activities including fitness, swimming and play for ages 0-15 - taking place weekly after school and during school holidays, ‘Doorstep Sports Clubs’ (informal sport sessions delivered in partnership with Rochdale Youth Service) and holiday activities for children aged 4-18 years old with mild to moderate disabilities

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Prehab 4Cancer In partnership with GM Active, the charity was pleased to deliver the first full year of the GM-wide Prehab4Cancer programme, supporting 43 people in the borough.

Prehab4Cancer is designed to better prepare people physically and mentally for their cancer treatment.

It supports them in their recovery from treatment and gives the opportunity for them to make lifelong changes for overall improved health and wellbeing. It is available before and after cancer treatment.

316,000 Over 316,000 visits receiving subsidised sport & leisure activities

55% 55% of school pupils achieved KS2 swimming and 81% of pupils were able to swim 5m or more

1,368 adult and junior participants to accessible sessions

Supporting Living Well Local People Community The Integrated Neighbourhood Team programme, in partnership with the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, continued to deliver non-clinical interventions to support local people to access services in the community and voluntary sector.

During the year the team supported up to 600 vulnerable local people in partnership with other local providers in NHS, PAT, Adult Social Care and other Community & Voluntary sector organisations.

Working with the Big Life Group, the charity continued to deliver the ‘Living Well’ community and family prevention programme. A total of 872 people were referred by GP’s to Exercise Referral providing individual advice, guidance and physical activity interventions to improve wellbeing and positively manage long term health conditions.

#Thrive

Rochdale Leisure Centre rated

‘Very Good’

Active Living, for older adults and those living with or managing long term health conditions, provided a total of 1,700 sessions, reaching 2,618 people and a total of 25,500 annual attendances

HENRY; a nationally accredited programme for parents of under 5’s, delivered to 55 families,

working with overweight children and their parents in partnership with school nursing team, supported 122 children and families

Health & Wellbeing Programmes Sessions included cardiac rehabilitation, Moving Forward after Stroke and postural stability programmes for falls prevention. The popular Walking Football and Walking Netball programmes also enabled older adults to enjoy competitive sport once again.

The Community Nutrition Team, which focusses on childhood obesity, delivered sessions to improve healthy eating and nutrition including:

Energy Club;

in the charities first Quest assessment

Throughout the year the charity continued to work closely with Public Health partners, providers and commissioners to support delivery of a number of specialist health and wellbeing programmes.

Childrens Healthy Eating

Fresh;

Link4Life continued to partner the #Thrive service providing emotional wellbeing services for young people including various treatments and advice from Pennine care and TOG (Tameside, Oldham and Glossop) Mind staff. The team created bespoke action plans for every young person who was interested in taking part in some kind of activity including social, physical and cultural activities.

a physical activity and healthy eating programme with schools including community cooking skills, demonstrations and individual healthy weight advice for teenagers and adults on referral, delivering nutrition workshops to 610 school children and carrying out 6 home visits to assist people with disabilities to prepare and cook healthy meals in their homes

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We Won

Visitors

Touchstones Rochdale won in the Welcome category for a Visit England 2019 accolade.

Total visitors to Touchstones Rochdale enjoying free creative events and activities were

89%

your culture

achieved on Visit England quality assessment at Touchstones Rochdale

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Renewal of official Accredited Museum status from Arts Council England

72,524, 58% an increase of

compared to the previous year

Engaging With Children

Feel Good Festival Link4Life worked with Rochdale Borough Council and Without Walls to develop the free outdoor arts programme for families at the Feel Good Festival

Dippy On Tour The charity worked with Rochdale Borough Council and the Natural History Museum to bring Dippy on Tour to Rochdale.

Dippy at Number One Riverside and the Dippy Exhibition at Touchstones opened in February 2020.

The number of children visiting Touchstones with school doubled to 10,430 over the 12 months due to the popularity of ‘Dippy on Tour’ and the relaunched creative learning programme.

A total of 3,622 learning sessions were delivered in the museum and galleries and a further 3,809 children were engaged in school through our loans box scheme.

Selladoor Worldwide Partnership Furthering our commitment to quality, the charity was delighted to secure a new partnership with Selladoor Worldwide enabling it to present a brand new production of ‘Frankenstein’ at Middleton Arena in February

Community is Key Accessibility remains a core concern for the charity. Our two stages were used by local community groups to present 146 live events including dance shows, amateur dramatic and youth theatre.

Pantomimes

New Access Schemes During the year the charity launched three new schemes aimed at increasing accessibility to great arts and events.

Best of Friends Offering discounts to all Link4Life health and fitness members and Your Link4Life card holders.

Essential Companion Scheme Offering free tickets to essential companions of those with disabilities and life limiting medical conditions.

Connecting You A scheme offering free tickets and organised social opportunities, such as an afternoon tea, for isolated older people.

A total of

292

performances were staged at Middleton Arena and Heywood Civic Centre reaching a total of Performances of the two annual Christmas pantomimes (Cinderella at Middleton Arena and Sleeping Beauty at Heywood Civic Centre), were enjoyed by 6,529 local school children over the festive period.

63,942

audience members

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your community

Activity Sessions Our development team delivered a total of

4,100

activity sessions with almost

80,000

attendances across all ages and abilities, in a variety of locations throughout the borough.

PE lessons for over 2000 children Link4Life’s PE and School Sport Specialists delivered high quality curriculum PE lessons, extra-curricular activities and health and wellbeing programmes to 35 primary schools in the borough, reaching over 2000 children on a weekly basis

7 Junior Sports Leadership (Playmaker) courses were delivered to year 6 pupils

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Active Histories Active Histories was a new addition to the Education programme, combining expertise from the Arts and Heritage team along with those in the PE and School Sports team.

The active learning programme was delivered in schools and covered history topics whilst also contributing to increasing children’s physical activity levels.

Active Living There were 25,500 individual attendances to Active living sessions – activities for older adults and those with long term conditions.

Hollingworth Lake A total of 13,335 people took part in organised activities at Hollingworth Lake Adventure & Water Activity Centre including water sports, walking, hiking, archery, climbing wall and mountain biking.

6 Big Games events took place across the borough offering free family friendly activities to 3,110 local people

Fit and Fed Continuing the charities commitment to the issue of ‘holiday hunger’ experienced by many families in receipt of free school meals, we worked closely with early help services, schools and local voluntary groups to deliver the Rochdale Borough ‘Fit and Fed’ programme. 3150 meals were provided throughout the year alongside fun, free activities for children and families in need of our support

Obstacle Course at Hollingworth Lake

Beth Tweddle Gymnastics

Investment

The charity invested in a new portable outdoor obstacle course at Hollingworth Lake and Country Park. The course was trialled at the Rochdale Feel Good Festival in August, offering local families the opportunity to try it for free, and has since been added to the range of activities available for schools through the popular outdoor education programme

National Heritage Open Days Festival The charity supported co-ordination of the National Heritage Open Days Festival working with the Heritage Open Days National Partnership and local heritage groups.

Purchase of

new mini boats at Hollingworth Lake

New sauna & steam

installed on poolside at Middleton Arena

New gymnastics equipment purchased to deliver the Beth Tweddle Gymnastics programme

Produced the annual

Rochdale Borough Sports and Culture Awards

New Home Based Activities Additional in-year transformation funding enabled the charity to develop a broader range of activities for patients who were housebound or who had more severe conditions limiting mobility. New creative home based activities were introduced to help improve cognitive function and wellbeing in housebound patients and two new community arts programmes were introduced working in partnership with local community centres.

to celebrate achievements throughout the borough

Virtual Group Exercise The charity introduced new virtual group exercises to Link4Life centres, increasing flexibility and choice for health and fitness members

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Your Support Makes All The Difference We rely on the generosity and support of the community and our partners to enhance the health and physical & cultural wellbeing of the local community in Rochdale, both now and in the future.

Thank you to everyone that made a donation to support our work.

Every pound we receive goes back into keeping Rochdale’s leisure and cultural venues open for all to enjoy.

Thanks For Being Our Friend Our local Friends Groups raise money and gather volunteers to support the work of the organisation

Thanks For Donating Making a donation supports the work that we do and makes a real difference to local people and local communities.

Visit JustGiving/ Link4Life

Thanks For Taking Part Purchasing a membership, buying tickets for an event or joining another activity is one of the most effective ways people support the work we do as it generates income that is invested back into the local community.

Thanks For Hiring Us

Thanks For Volunteering Our volunteers make a valuable contribution to the work that the charity does throughout the local communities in the borough.

No matter what amount of time or skills you have to offer, you can make a real difference

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Hiring one of our venues for your family celebration, wedding, event, business meeting or corporate team building helps to support our work with the local community.

Supported By

Contact Us @Link4Life

@yourlink4life

Link4Life

www.link4life.org

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