Story:Amy Palmer
After hard work and careful planning Yemeni Community Association (YCA) staff secured £500,000 Big Lottery funding to build a healthy living centre for Fir Vale.
The Fir Vale Centre on Earl Marshal Road currently runs a nursery, advice sessions, and adult learning classes. It is open to all people in the community but the new gym will be primarily tailored to the needs of women, for example, having individual cubicles for changing. This means that most of the time the gym will be for women only but it will also have specific groups running for men.
On one floor a gym area will provide a gym studio, exercise machines and a steam room while the other will have a kitchen and healthy living café to provide social space. The grant is also providing money for a lift to link the two areas.
The Yemeni Community Association does not yet have funds for staffing the centre but hopes to make enough money through cafe sales and gym membership to employ local people, including apprentices.
The cafe is due to open on 2nd November and the gym looks to be ready to open in January ready for those New Year’s resolutions. The extended family services workers from local schools spoke of how pleased they are to have a facility that caters for the needs of local women.