Devon Villages To Get Active With Tone

Social enterprise and leisure trust Tone Leisure has been appointed to operate the first ever Active Villages programme in two Devon districts, as part of an initiative supported by Sport England.

Created by Active Devon, a countywide partnership for physical activity and sports, Active Villages is a development programme designed to provide long term, sustainable sports opportunities for village residents of all ages.  Funded by Sport England and Devon County Council, the scheme is positioned at the informal end of the sports spectrum, with the main objective being to offer rural communities the chance to experience the fun of sport and encourage people to adopt active lifestyles because they enjoy it. The project addresses Sport England’s GROW objective, which aims to see one million people taking part in more sport, and more children and young people taking part in five hours of PE and sport a week.

Having succeeded in a competitive tender process, Tone, which operates leisure facilities on behalf of local authorities as well as providing sports and health development services, will operate the Active Villages programme in the Mid Devon and South Hams districts. It will focus on parish communities with between 500 and 2,000 residents by developing bespoke sports packages tailored to local needs and delivering them within the communities themselves.

The team, which will be headed up by Tone’s Strategic Development Manager assisted by a newly appointed Project Co-ordinator in each district, will conduct an initial pilot phase beginning in July 2010 in five selected villages. The pilot phase will enable Tone to establish local partnerships with the likes of parish councils, voluntary organisations and schools, evaluate need and develop packages of support. Following the pilot scheme the project will be rolled out to all participating communities – 16 in total – during 2011.

Commenting on the contract win, Clare Bill, Strategic Development Manager at Tone, said: “We’re really pleased to be named as a Local Delivery Partner with Active Devon, as the Active Villages project represents a fantastic opportunity for us to reach out into areas that don’t necessarily have easy access to sports and leisure facilities. As a social enterprise and not-for-profit trust we’re committed to putting our expertise in the sports and leisure industry to use in projects that benefit communities, and Active Villages is the perfect fit.

“We’re looking forward to getting into the heart of these rural communities and developing tailored sports packages for people from primary school aged children to adults. We will be looking to recruit and train local volunteer leaders and coaches, and organise mass participation events in order to facilitate positive, inclusive atmospheres within the communities as well as delivering best value for Active Devon’s investment.”

For more information on Tone, visit http://www.toneleisure.co.uk. For more information on Active Devon and the Active Villages programme, visit http://www.activedevon.org