CHANGING THE WORLD ONE HOOP AT A TIME
By Dave Hunt‐Jackson, Club Secretary, Pendle & Craven Croquet Club
Pendle & Craven’s pioneering Wellbeing project goes from strength to strength. A bold headline and one which you might be forgiven for thinking is a bit of a joke! And yet, over the course of the ‘Croquet for Wellbeing’ ini7a7ve last summer, this seemingly flippant remark has gradually morphed, from tongue‐in‐cheek banter into somewhat of a campaign slogan. Not least because the person that ini7ally coined the phrase wasn’t even joking. “I do think that we’re onto something significant here” explains the project’s Lead Social Prescriber, James Smith; “When you see the difference it’s making and the feedback from clients, it’s simply astonishing.” James is speaking about the latest 16‐week run of Tuesday a'ernoon meet‐ups on the John Beech Lawns, nestled among the stone terraces of Earby, East Lancs. The final ques7onnaire analysis confirms what Pendle & Craven’s Project Lead, Ian Longstaff, has felt building all summer. On the key ques7ons, 66% of the respondents rated their experience as 10 out of 10 across all six main categories, with the answer to the big ques7on, ‘How well has the Group helped you towards your Wellbeing goals?’ returning an unequivocal 9.7 out of 10.
“On the one hand it’s kind of obvious when you see all the smiles week a'er week” he muses, “but when you think of it in terms of hard‐core data it is pre8y special. I mean, if croquet were being trialled alongside a new drug or therapy, we’d be having the Health Minister’s helicopter landing on the lawns in no 7me!” The project this 7me round has been funded by an award from the Sport England Movement Fund and builds on the success of last year’s pilot. It is, essen7ally, a partnership with the NHS, in that the Club works alongside local GPs and Social Prescribers who are able to refer their clients for all the good stuff that croquet brings: not just the game itself but the gentle nature of the exercise and the bonding with fellow players over 7me; even just the chance to get out of the house and enjoy some company or as
a welcome break from tough‐to‐deal‐ with situa7ons.
According to Ian, it is the broad range of issues presented that underlines the efficacy of all the hoop running. “We have carers who come for a bit of respite, cancer pa7ents who have found something that they can s7ll do and enjoy with their partners, people who are restricted in some way due to physical injuries, mental health challenges or condi7ons like Alzheimer’s and demen7a” he says. For him, the most gra7fying thing is to see how the Club volunteers have taken it all in their stride and have found ways to accommodate whatever has been thrown at them. “The sight of a group leader carrying a white plas7c chair around for a guy who has Parkinson’s and needs the odd rest here and there; it brings a tear to the eye some7mes!” The guest book is also awash with posi7ve remarks, with par7cipants aged from 28 to 90 recording comments like, “We act like children,
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