Movement Park

Movement Park

At a glance

Causes

  • Children / families
  • Education
  • Local / community
  • Sports
  • Voluntary sector support

Other details

Organisation type: 
Charity
Geographical remit: 
National - Scotland

Objectives

PRIORITY AREAS AND OUTCOMES

  1. PARTNERSHIPS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Movement Park will continue to take a lead role in a number of partnerships in order to address new challenges or to generate innovative, dynamic responses to particular issues, like obesity or lack of physical competencies. We will continue to develop connections with like-minded organisations. 

Increased activity levels in areas of high social deprivation, having a positive impact on the inactivity and obesity epidemic in Scotland through strong partnerships and structured programme delivery.

Increased community presence for local charities and increased community pride and motivation for change through acquiring project funding from various organisations

Increased membership through engagement with the Movement Park offers.

  1. CHILDREN AND PHYSICAL LITERACY

If we want people, to be active for life, ideally they will need to develop physical literacy at a young age. Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.

Active Start (0-5 years)

Children from 0-5 years need to be engaged in daily active play. Through play and movement, they develop fundamental movement skills and learn how to link them together. Participants learn and explore through a host of fun activities.   

FUNdamentals (4-7 years)

In this stage, participants develop fundamental movement skills in structured and unstructured environments for play. Movement Park will continue to focus on providing fun, inclusive, multisport, and developmentally appropriate physical activity. These experiences will result in the participant developing a wide range of movement skills along with the confidence and desire to participate. Activities will help children to build confidence and competence as they engage in physical activity.

Learn to Train (8-12 years)

Once a wide range of fundamental movement skills has been acquired, participants progress into the Learn to Train stage leading to understanding basic rules, tactics, and strategy in games and refinement of sport-specific skills.

Movement Park will continue to offer opportunities to participate in multiple sports participate in events and competitions and will focus on skill development and retention.  Games and activities offered will be inclusive, fun and skill-based. 

  1. FEMALE PARTICIPATION

Women and girls continue to be underrepresented in the sport and physical activity system. Awareness about biomechanical and physiological considerations unique to women and girls has increased, providing a foundation to improve training methods and competition programmes for them. However, large gaps persist in knowledge and practice relating to the psycho-social factors that influence women and girls as participants, athletes, coaches, officials, leaders or administrators.

As a catalyst for change, Movement Park will continue to address these recognised shortcomings and will further support women and girls to be active at all stages of participation and competition. 

Movement Park will continue to treat people equitably, rather than equally. The concept of “equality” often results in programmes and services for one group simply being made available to another. In contrast, “equity” requires consideration of the unique needs, interests, and experiences of a target group when developing and delivering services and allocating resources. Therefore, some services may be the same, while others may be completely different. 

  1. INCLUSION

Every person should have the opportunity to develop physical literacy. For children with disabilities access to age-appropriate, adapted equipment is an important contributor to being physically active. 

Movement Park recogises its responsibility to create accessible physical activity opportunities and will continue to develop and adapt programmes to be as inclusive as possible. Movement Park’s principles for members are applicable to all, including members with disabilities. Movement Park will continue to deliver fully inclusive, modified and separate, specialised programmes for people with disabilities.

  1. CREATIVE ART

The importance of creativity in children’s daily lives and healthy development has become increasingly recognised in recent years. A growing body of evidence supports the view that creative play throughout childhood, is not only an innate behavior but also contributes to children’s quality of life, their well-being, and their physical, social, emotional and cognitive development.  The type of environment for creative play is also important, having an impact on children’s experience, choices, and relationships, both with other people and with the environment itself.

  1. STAFF AND VOLUNTEER DEVELOPMENT

Movement Park will continue to provide opportunities for personal and professional development to volunteers and staff. 

Those who work for Movement Park need to be confident and competent. That is why we will continue to provide services, education, and training for our volunteers and staff to increases their competence and confidence. 

  • Full leadership programme designed and operational
  • Developing youth coaches
  • The education system for parents

We will further continue to increase employability skills in young adults through coaching opportunities and training. Through volunteering, young adults in the community can gain work experience and improve their communication and other interpersonal skills. 

 

Activities

OUR VISION - We want to live in a community where: 

Wellbeing and social engagement are enhanced through a host of sporting and creative activities.

OUR MISSION - We will achieve this vision by:

Creating a thriving hub facility that is warm and welcoming, allowing creative opportunities to move more and sit less; to develop friendships; experience engagement; and offer many chances for personal and social development.

Founded in 2015 and opening its doors in 2017, Movement Park is a Glasgow-based charity that uses movement-based activities and creative play to enhance the lives of the local community through our hub facility and wider outreach programmes. For the past 35 years, founder Stephen Somerville has been absorbed by the sport of Judo in one way or another; as a successful competitive player, national coach producing players on many levels and most recently as a key member of the Business Delivery Team for the Scottish Governing Body of Judo, JudoScotland. 

Since conception, our approach at Movement Park has been different for the normal sports club because we spend time on task to build confidence and competence in fundamental movement skills, which in turn affects the motivation of the individuals to remain active for life, thus causing a social change. We have educated all those that come through the doors of our multi-sport facility, or that access our outreach programmes, to take ownership of their health and activity levels for life.

Our future growth plan is simply, to grow our current footfall of 1,200 participants per month and to expand our local partnerships. Since opening our doors, Movement Park has delivered a variety of projects such as JudoGirlsRock, Girls Do Parkour, I do Judo in addition to a host of Urban Sports and community events. This coming December, Movement Park is creating a local Rudolph Run to engage the local community in some festive family fun. With 2020 now on our doorstep Movement Park is expanding their programme, allocating more time to family sessions and other popular urban sports activities as well as introducing a team sport such as basketball to the activity mix.

The creation of a strong, recognisable brand has been established and this has been carried through to a host of marketing material from website to community advertising and within the building itself. We hope to further develop the brand across a variety of saleable merchandise that will be instantly recognised as the place to be. With our service now being delivered in a number of local schools, community groups, and partners, Movement Park aims to increase this delivery as our coaching team grows.

No current opportunities

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