In a sport known for somersaults, twists, turns and flips, it’s execution that matters for Penzance Gymnastics Club when it comes to making a difference for their community – two years on from nearly closing their doors.

“The vision has always been to provide affordable physical activity for members of the public, and now we are facilitating from babies all the way through to adults,” outlines Teona Jelbert, the club’s manager.

“We are like a lifeline for quite a few local groups and families. We provide not just gymnastics but are a hub for the entire community to come in and enjoy.

“I think if this wasn’t available, there would be a lot of people suffering with mental health problems, social anxiety and children that were becoming non-active, then who knows what the population of Penzance would be like?”

Diversifying their offering has been the springboard for their success.

The club, which supports over 600 people, is in a very different place to a few years ago according to its voluntary director, Luke Edwards.

“Looking back at the end of 2023, we probably thought we had a year left of survival until we would be non-existent,” he says. “So we had to look at ways to see how we can make the club sustainable.

“We brought in a double mini trampoline/tumbling coach so we could introduce that and that then rolled onto other things. Parkour came about, and just very, very recently we’ve taken on the local cheerleading club.

“We’ve just been awarded local Community Capacity Funding from Cornwall Council to set up a special education needs (SEN) facility and also an SEN programme. It enables the club to become more inclusive and offer the facilities to groups of people who currently can’t access it.

“The club has grown on many levels. By bringing in all these different activities, we can get more people involved with the club.”

This growth in diversity of offering has diversified their membership too, but also deepened the activity level of their existing members.

“Quite a few boys find that gymnastics is more girl-orientated and we want to break down that stereotype and we want to make sure that everybody can come in and enjoy our space,” Jelbert adds.

“That’s why we’ve started to diversify and offer different activities, but also it gives our existing members another avenue to explore and get involved with, allowing people to remain in the sport longer.”

The club is part of the Sported network of 5,000 grassroots sports clubs and community organisations, all making a difference to people in their communities through sport and physical activity.

“We had conversations and found out some of what the Sported network could do,” Edwards shares. “It sounded very, very attractive to us and something which we thought would benefit the club.”

One benefit of being part of the Sported network is access to Volunteer Consultants, experts in a range of fields who donate their time to help groups like Penzance Gymnastics Club.

Having benefitted from one of these volunteers, Edwards adds: “We had a meeting with Mark Sweeney and again, that was a really good meeting.

“He told us lots of things about funding mechanisms we could get involved with, and it just seemed something which would benefit the club. So we just take it from there.”

For more information about Penzance Gymnastics Club, their activities and how to get involved, visit their website www.penzancegymclub.co.uk. 

To find out how Sported supports grassroots sport and donate your skills and experiences as a Volunteer Consultant, check out www.hub.sported.org.uk