The continual growth in the number of community focused initiatives has prompted us change our name from Bolton Arena Sports Village.
From now on, we’ll be known as the Bolton Arena Community Sports Village.
It might only be one added word – but it’s our way of getting rid of the idea we are an elite sports and fitness venue, with about 80% of current activities taking place here having a bearing on community physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Our Managing Director, Neil Hutchinson, explains: “We want to get the message across that we’re much more than just a sports village.
“About 80% of what we do is around community, working with other agencies and organisations across Bolton.
“For example, we host bereavement cafes, mental health support groups, we work with Age UK, we’re working with Bolton Deaf Society, and lots of disability groups. We just recently started a walking football group for people with Parkinson’s Disease, which is proving really beneficial for them, and we’ve just started working with Bolton GP Federation.
“It’s been a massive part of how we’ve grown over the last three years, and we want to continue building on that. It’s also helped our commercial growth too, because some of the people in the groups that use us come back and use our pitches, sports hall, gym and the café in their own time.”
Our partnership with the town’s GP federation has led to its mobile Health Hive unit using our car park as a base for delivering Covid-19 boosters and essential health checks.
It came about after the federation appealed for a venue for the unit via the Bolton Family — a collaboration between private, public, and VCSE sectors, all working together to create social value for the town.
Jack Ayling, the federation’s communications officer, says: “We’re incredibly grateful to the arena for stepping up and offering a safe space to park our Health Hive unit. Their generosity is helping us to bring vital healthcare closer to our communities.”
Another example of the work being done is our link up with Bolton Deaf Society to make accessibility to fitness and exercise less daunting for the profoundly deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
It evolved from a post Covid survey called What Deaf People Want prepared for Bolton Deaf Society, Manchester Deaf Centre and Walthew House in Stockport, which found Bolton had approximately 600 British Sign Language (BSL) users and an estimated 55,000 people with hearing loss of some kind.
Now front-line staff such as our receptionists, gym instructors, and customer service representatives have had deaf awareness and basic BSL training so they can communicate more effectively.
Our focus on community is not just an external approach – an employee engagement group fosters an internal community raising money for local good causes.
One of our members, senior receptionist Zoe Jackson, will be doing a skydive in June as part of our team taking part in the £50 challenge for Bolton Hospice.
It’s the second time Zoe and EEG members have signed up for the challenge, whereby teams from local businesses are each given £50 and challenged to turn it into as much as possible with the advice, ‘If it’s legal it’s fine’ – and they are hoping to better the £4,264 they raised in 2024.
Here’s Neil again: “We’ve become inextricably linked with such a large part of the community; we just want our name to reflect that. It’s important to remember we are a charity too; every pound of our surplus revenues is reinvested into our facilities and services that ultimately benefit Bolton and its people.”
If you would like to know more about how we can help your community and/or charity, please contact info@boltonarena.com or call 01204 488112
