Thanks to support from the National Lottery, we’re working with a group of industry experts to create resources and training that’ll help leisure and fitness centres ensure their spaces are safe and welcoming for us to visit.
We believe that empowering women to feel comfortable and confident when visiting a gym or leisure centre is essential.
Which is why we're teaming up with The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity and ukactive to better understand and support women's safety in these spaces, as well as develop the tools and support needed to make this happen.
The funding allocated to this project (almost £500,000), will enable us to work in a number of areas, including collaborating with safeguarding organisations to make sure that women feel secure in the places they visit, reducing feelings of intimidation, and helping leisure sector workers feel able to offer support and prioritise safety.
Ali Donnelly, our executive director of digital, marketing and communications, said safety and harassment fears often stop women from getting active.
“These fears can undermine confidence to the point that many women are reluctant to use gyms and leisure centres,” she explained.
“Through This Girl Can we have learned a huge amount about how to help our partners make their facilities and spaces safe and welcoming for women, and this investment will provide significant support to the leisure and fitness sector to make improvements.”
According to research, personal safety concerns are one of the reasons many of us may be reluctant to attend gyms and leisure centres, with two-thirds saying they had taken some precautions to protect themselves from sexual harassment when visiting.
Through This Girl Can we have learned a huge amount about how to help our partners make their facilities and spaces safe and welcoming for women, and this investment will provide significant support to the leisure and fitness sector to make improvements.”
Executive director of digital, marketing and communications, Sport England
We hope by improving women’s feelings of safety and inclusion, we’ll increase our overall participation in leisure settings and, as a result, continue working towards closing the persistent gender gap in activity levels.
Steve Scales, director of membership and sector development for ukactive, said it was great to see this additional investment into the fitness and leisure sector.
“The work of this project will not only positively impact women and girls visiting facilities, but others too, as we continue to grow and draw people from more diverse backgrounds – becoming a fully inclusive environment for everyone to feel safe, empowered and comfortable while enjoying the benefits of being active,” he added.
Tara Dillon, chief executive at CIMSPA, said it was important that women felt safe in gyms and leisure facilities.
“It’s crucial that, as a sector, we do everything we can to make sure gyms and leisure facilities are safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces for all women,” she explained. “This starts with training and education for the workforce; helping them to prevent, identify and deal with any instances of harassment. We are proud to be working on this important initiative alongside our partners at Sport England, This Girl Can and ukactive.”
