Naseem Akhtar Project Manager

Saheli History

• Saheli Women’s Group formed 1998part of Balsall Heath Forum

• Support from local men!• Regular meetings • Feasibility study commissioned to establishes the

needs of local women• Priorities established

1. Health & fitness centre, run by women for women 2. Aerobics & exercise3. Swimming

Healthy Living Centre bid

Gathered evidence of the health needs of the area

1. Highest death rate by ward

2. Highest rates of coronary heart disease

3. Highest rate of people diagnosed as diabetic

4. Worst rate of infant mortality rate in the

whole of Western Europe

5. First time statistics gathered together for the area

HLC Vision

• Through local understanding of culture; language, religion needs and grassroots knowledge

• To create a ’health and fitness facility’ run by women for women

• Be innovative and address local issues through delivering services in an innovative way

HLC bid part successful

• Partnership created to secure £1M for ‘A Healthy Living Centre’ in Balsall Heath

• 2 year process • We secured £0.5M over 5 years for revenue

costs only - to develop action clubs across the neighbourhood

• Saheli – make or break time?• Local Network Fund & Connexions Funding • ‘Girl only’ sports scheme

Sports Scheme a Success

• Worked with local girls aged 13-18 years old

• Working and developing relationship with local parents

• Take girls horse riding; rock climbing, skiing, canoeing and learning how to ride a bike!

• Breaking stereo types/perceptions of Asian women

Community Engagement

• Saheli becomes a registered charity• We employ our Development Officer Rakhyia Arshad-Begum• To engage with young girls supporting them to engage in local

consultation events, and conferences improving their low expectations; aspirations and confidence.

• Second year of activities – the girls wanted bigger challenges, become more adventurous and a real voice in the area.

• Working in partnership with a local college, HLC staff, we set up a unique partnership approach and pilot our ‘women only gym’

Active England Grant

• Disillusioned by past HLC process• The Active England Grant would be a ‘new way of

doing things’• A4 page of our Saheli vision

Local facilityRun by women, for ALL womenWorking in partnership with local college

• Initial idea supported ‘work up your idea’ The Saheli Adventure hub concept is born

From idea to reality

• Partnership formed with the local college, Knight Frank and Saheli

• Bid worked up with partners

• Time scales and KPI’s agreed

• Then the really hard work began!

• Legal issues, timescales, service level agreements

Successful Launch

• Recruitment of staff – ex local authority and local women

• The Hub is launched in June 2006

• Our first KPI was 250 local women signed up to become members paying £10.00 per month - achieved - in two weeks

• Youngest customer 13 and oldest customer 81 years old

Services in the Hub• ‘Women only’ days Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. ‘Men only’

day Wednesday.• One to one support and guidance• Regular exercise sessions – yoga, aerobics, gentle exercise and dance • Dances of the world project – salsa, bollywood, street dance, belly dancing

and bhangra• Virtual instructor• Ramblers and walkers club• Wellbeing project – NHS funded• Back care clinic• Local girls school hiring of facility as part of their curriculum• Using the Local Authorities swipe-card system to collate and share the

information and prove that where appropriate ‘culturally sensitive provision, can and does work

Learning from the Adventure Hub

• Know the community you serve!

• Know and understand their history, culture, religion and their needs

• Employ local people where you can

• Build local and city wide partnerships

• Be innovative and deliver what the community wants and not what you think it needs

What would we do differently?

• Use our own monitoring scheme

• Charge a higher rate from the start

• Have a bigger facility to generate more income

• Sauna!

• Issue of fees going up and losing members

• Reality check - £10 = more members but can’t cope with demand. £15 = less members and less income – Hard decisions to be made

Saheli 2007 -2010

• Secured Reaching Communities monies Our own minibus & funding for more sporting

and engagement work

• We are working to disseminate the learning from the Adventure Hub (total membership 922 members through door over the first year)

• Working with BEN we will open a second site in Washwood Heath B8

Saheli 2007 -2010

1/3 1/3 1/3

• 1/3 Commissioned work• 1/3 Grant income• 1/3 Income generation

Sahe

Contact Details

www.saheliwg.org.uk

Naseem Akhtar Shebina Gill

Project Manager Adventure Hub Manager

82-89 St Pauls Road Cannonhill Centre

Balsall Heath Edward Road

B12 8LS B12 9LB

0121 446 6182 0121 446 6137Rakhyia Arshad-Begum

Development Officer82-89 St Pauls Road

Balsall Heath B12 8LS 0121 446 6183