The Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) has awarded 6 facilities the IFI Mark, highlighting the inclusive message that fitness facilities are open to all. All of these accessible sites launched during the IFI’s first ever Inclusive Fitness Week.
Inclusive Fitness Week (IFW) took place during 24th-30th April 2008, bringing together the IFI, accredited facilities and the fitness industry as a whole to ask the question, why aren’t more disabled people participating in physical activity than do so at present? Accredited IFI Mark facilities staged over 100 events and activities throughout the week, across the country encouraging disabled people to try the facilities on offer. Amongst these nationwide events the 6 newly recognised IFI centres, Romford YMCA, Oaklands, York, Sporting Edge at Edgehill University, Waendel Leisure Centre, Wellingborough, Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Centre and Lakeland Forum in Northern Ireland all launched as IFI Sites and promoted their commitment to inclusive fitness.
Paul Bickle, Manger of Oaklands stated,
“Achieving the Inclusive Fitness Mark has been a team effort by all the staff here and has led to us all being more aware of what inclusive means and why it matters. We now have an Oaklands Sportability Club and many more disabled users making use of the centre. Our philosophy has always been to be a fantastic community facility that can be used by everyone and so we’re delighted that this has been recognised nationally.”
Through the six launched facilities, the IFI has broken a number of new boundaries, with Lakeland Forum the first facility to launch in Northern Ireland, Oaklands in York being the first facility to become accredited through the new IFI Mark Assessment Framework and Sporting Edge at Edge Hill University being the first launched facility through the IFI’s National Sports Foundation Programme.
Waendel Leisure Centre in Wellingborough, operated by DC Leisure became the second accredited facility within the local authority. Romford YMCA and Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Centre also opened their doors as accredited facilities during Inclusive Fitness Week.
The IFI Mark Assessment operates around three levels of accreditation, Provisional, Registered and Excellent. Three of the new facilities have attained Registered Level (Lakeland Forum, Sporting Edge and Oaklands) with the other three attaining Provisional Level (Waendel, Romford and Elmbridge).
In conjunction with the launch of the IFI’s new strategy, ‘Inclusion Works Out', these facilities mark the first steps towards reaching the target of 1000 facilities launched across the UK by the end of 2012.
Sue Catton, the IFI’s National Director said,
“The launch of these facilities come at a pivotal time for the project, with the launch of the scheme’s strategy there is a clear and identifiable route to ensuring that disabled people irrespective of geography or impairment can access an accredited facility. It should be a given that disabled people should expect a high quality and inclusive experience at any gym they choose to visit and we continue to work in partnership with all industry sectors to ensure this is the case.”
Since its inception, the IFI has proved that disabled people want to use fitness facilities, and that it is realistically attainable for facilities to create inclusive environments to facilitate this. In doing so the fitness industry opens its doors to around 20% of the population, that vast majority of which have never set foot in a gym before. The IFI has been working with the fitness sector since 2001, supporting facilities to offer an inclusive provision, addressing issues related to building access, the provision of inclusive fitness equipment, staff training and the marketing message delivered by the fitness industry. This holistic approach ensures that inclusion is addressed in the widest possible sense, going much further than the creation of accessible venues to provide inclusive and welcoming environments that really do facilitate exercise for all.
