Using the Together Fund to bring the enjoyment of tennis to local people: Gorleston Lawn Tennis club
Established back in 1955, Gorleston Lawn Tennis Club is one of the longest running tennis clubs in Norfolk, and has long been considered a staple of the local community.
Their goal is to bring the enjoyment of tennis to the local community. They want to encourage people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to come and take part.
With this in mind, they started their Wellbeing Tennis sessions in 2021. This was to widen the range of people who attended to include those with disabilities, to give local people the chance to have fun in challenging times, and to find friendship through sport.
The Aim
After finding out about the Together Fund opportunity from our locality officer, Gorleston Tennis Club worked with Active Norfolk to apply for £1600 worth of funding to provide weekly tennis sessions over a period of 9 months.
These Wellbeing Tennis sessions were open to all, but primarily aimed at relieving mental stresses. They were also designed to improve participants’ mental health and wellbeing. This proved to be particularly crucial not only in the wake of the mental health issues caused by COVID-19, but also as we began to approach the cost of living crisis.
The Challenges
Whilst the application process was straightforward thanks to the help and support received from a designated locality officer, a challenge faced was the length of time it took for the funding to get approved. This is a common issue faced when working with a national funding pot, and something Active Norfolk have fed back on.
As the funding was received near the end of the tennis season, a decision was made to modify the project to focus on Spring/Summer 2023 in light of this, which delayed the project, and threatened to decrease the impact of the marketing efforts.
Another challenge faced was attracting and encouraging participants to come and take part. This required collaboration with several partners across the county.
“I can recommend this to some of the people who I support.”
Neil Squirrel, Prevention & Positive Activities Co-ordinator, Menscraft
“I can see that the people in this group are really enjoying it, and are bonding together as friends.”
Eleanor Catchpole, Psychodynamic Counsellor
The Approach
Approaching the delay in funding:
The funding, whilst originally designed to deliver 9 months worth of sessions to those who could benefit most, had to be partly used to keep the project running through the winter period, so as to not lose any of the participants already attracted. With this in mind, the programme has started with a soft launch
The plan is to focus heavily on increasing engagement for the Spring/Summer 2023 period. At this time, they aim to build numbers for the main tennis season.
Increasing engagement:
With engagement and number of participants a known challenge, the club have addressed this issue in by contacting several different partners.
The most productive method of attracting new participants was to directly approach people within the mental health industry. In doing so, Gorleston Lawn Tennis Club invited them to come and spectate or participate. A small budget was set aside to produce any posters that people required to announce Wellbeing Tennis.
Partners who engaged included local NHS Wellbeing services, Menscraft, hospital consultants, psychotherapists and various other medical practitioners who agreed to spread the word and attract participants.
The Outcomes: Gorleston Lawn Tennis Club
Due to the delay in funding being released, the project is still in the early stages. There are 8 months of delivery remaining. However, feedback from the initial project launch has been positive. Partners from Menscraft and the NHS have agreed to spread the word to increase participation.
Feedback from participants has also been positive. Participants have reported enjoying the sessions ‘immensely’ and have been happy to continue playing throughout the winter.
The club have advised that in future programmes, they would like to expand the range of participants being targeted. They would like to offer, amongst other things, sessions catering to disabilities such as partially sighted individuals.
Get Involved
Gorleston Tennis Club were able to apply for funding through the Together Fund. This was a funding pot which was open to clubs and organisations in Norfolk. Whilst this has now closed, click below to see what other funding you may be eligible for.