Hulme Community Day
Key Points taken from discussions with Geoff Thompson, from the organisation Youth Charter and Pete Bradshaw, of Manchester City Football Club and Sport 4 All.
The Youth Charter was formed in 1993 by Geoff Thompson. This organisation aimed to tackle social issues through, sports, arts and culture.
Through talking to Mr Thompson, I learnt how sport is a great way of engaging the community. Not only is playing sport fun and healthy it’s a great way to interact with people and create community spirit. However despite this 85% of people do not take part in sport.
Homes of the locality
People of the locality
The diagram shows how sport can engage people in the community. Members of the co-locality come out of their enclosed homes to play sport. This creates interactions that can lead to community spirit.
Previously kids could go out and kick a ball about on the streets or play various playground games but with busy, dangerous roads now prominent in urban areas. Furthermore, due to the current attitude of not disrupting others ‘no ball games’ signs are more common on the streets than sports.
Pete Bradshaw talked about the design of leisure centres and their lack of impact on society. Commonly they are cheap builds on cheap land generally accesed via dark allyways. Pete Bradshaw stressed how these ‘uninviting places’ would deter people from taking part in sport and modern day sports centres need to encourage people to use them as opposed the detering them.
Sporting Facilities in Hulme
In Hulme specifically there are very poor sport facilities. The nearest leissure centre is in Moss Side which provides a gym, swimming pool and a sports hall. The schools may have facilities during the day, but come 4pm are shut. Other than that there is a series of un-lit parks. I asked people at the community day where the kids (many were of whom were in football shirts) go and casually play sport in Hulme. The answer was that there wasn't really anywhere specifically in Hulme to play.
While the district of Hulme does contain a series of parks suitable for sport, there are a number of reasons that make them un-used.
Un-Lit
While during the summer months these parks maybe used more, without sufficient lighting these outdoor spaces become redundant during a lot of the year out of school hours.
Un-roofed
Would people rather play out in the rain when they can recreate the sporting experiences through playstation’s and xbox’s in the comforts of their own homes?
Un-Manned
Without any sort of carer or security personnel are reluctant to use the parks. Especially the younger generation who would only use the parks under superivision of their parents.. at best!
Mosside Leisure centre
Whilst the centre provides good facilities for swimming and a gym, the two small sports hall can’t possibly provide the required space for such a huge district.
Conclusion
My conclusion from the days research was that there is a definate lack of sporting facilities in Hulme. To create new and exciting facilities would be the first objective of my project.