Aspatria Dreamscheme

Project Title: Butterfly Club - Swimming Sessions 

Funding Received: £3402

Project Outline: Following Covid-19 there had been a great demand locally to restart the Butterfly Club, which supports local women aged between 40 and 70 in Aspatria. The club is primarily for women who suffer with either their mental or physical health, have become socially isolated following the pandemic, or who are not able to engage with other groups/activities due to the financial implications of doing so.

Previously this offer has been made up of self-confidence sessions using art therapy and low-level engagement activities. However, as discussions progressed with local women and following some taster sessions, there was an appetite to introduce physical activity into the sessions through swimming. The majority of women have not had a swimming costume on for over 20 years, so to support the women in accessing this offer, remove any potential barriers and to encourage longer term participation, each were ordered a swimming costume and goggles.  

Additional to the centre-based sessions, the swimming sessions have been taking place at Wigton Baths, which is the nearest swimming pool to Aspatria DreamScheme. Hosting the closed sessions here will allow participants to feel confident in their surroundings in the presence of all the other members of the group, limiting barriers to engagement. Another additional benefit to having the sessions at Wigton Baths is to support/encourage future engagement beyond the conclusion of the project and to highlight the additional/alternative sessions that participants may want to engage with in the future at Wigton Baths.

The Swimming aspect of the offer will encourage these women to engage in physical activity benefitting the women physically, mentally and emotionally. Following Covid-19, loneliness and social isolation have been some of the biggest issues locally and this offer will help tackle this, based on the needs and wants of the group to engage in such physical activity.