After years of neglect, community sport and recreation facilities in East Bolton were much in need of an upgrade. Activities were often inappropriate and poorly organised, did not cater for all ages, especially young people and venues were inaccessible and in poor condition.

The Sport, Play and Recreation programme aimed to redesign facilities to meet the needs of the local community – and spark more interest in sport and exercise.

The first step was to map existing facilities and clubs, and identify any problems working closely with community and voluntary groups. East Bolton was then divided into nine areas, and an action plan drawn up for each. Young people were heavily involved in this process.

Research was undertaken to find out where young people go, what they do, where they don’t go and why, and what they would like for their area. Special efforts were made to engage youths who were considered to be at risk.

The Bolton Metro team have drawn up long-term strategic plans, plus made quick improvements, including:

The programme has worked with 53 clubs, created four new sport and play facilities and improved another two. Nearly 300 people have participated in training and two have found jobs.

Learning points:

The community

Outreach workers were used to reach young people directly.
A number of young people were trained to run participation workshops, where they were able to discover and feedback the views of their peers to the project managers.

East Bolton Regeneration
Sarah Poole (Sport, Regeneration & Social Inclusion Manager), tel. +44 1204 334 259

/04/2000

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Young people