On 27th July 2016 Poplar Baths Leisure Centre opened its doors to the public for the first time in 30 years. The iconic venue is at the heart of the community in Tower Hamlets and offers swimming, gym, fitness classes, rooftop football pitch, and a Better Coffee Corner. To mark the one-year anniversary the centre and community team put on a free open day on 27th July 2017 which allowed members and non-members the chance to see the venue and try some of the classes, sports and games.
The day consisted of; toddlers world with soft play and bouncy castle, rebound fitness, yoga, badminton, football, gymnastics, toddlers' water world, gym and swim.
The GLL Community Foundation has been established to provide grant funding and practical ‘in kind’ support with a value of up to £5,000 per individual project, to a wide range of community schemes. These could include creating or renovating public spaces such as parks or gardens, running sports tournaments or supporting cultural or community events.
At this event, the GLL Sport Foundation teamed up with the GLL Community Foundation to help the most recent project in Tower Hamlets. Factory East Boxing are raising money to get new equipment and help run the local boxing club, which is a charity. Factory East provided a mobile boxing ring outside the facility to entice people in and to raise awareness and funding for the project which is being supported by the GLL Community Foundation.
GLL Sport Foundation supported ambassador Cherrelle Brown also came down the event to show the young boxers how it was done! Cherrelle hit the pads with the a few of the Factory East members and shared her boxing story with the team. The addition of Cherrelle was fantastic who encouraged youths in the community to take up boxing, and also built a relationship with the Factory East Boxing Club. She hopes to help them with some of their sessions down at the boxing gym in the future.
This event was a great showcase of how the foundations can work together to help the community; the Community Foundation provides cash and in kind support for local projects, and the Sport Foundation helps inspire young community members to be more active. GLL are very proud to have these foundations and want to make their communities aware that the organisation really does care, and wants to help and support where possible to improve the health and wellbeing of local people.
