Kit for All
Removing Barriers to Physical and Social Activity
The Kit for All programme aims to remove barriers and increase accessibility to physical activity for all ages in Shetland by facilitating donation and collection of sports and outdoor wear to those who feel they need it. The initiative is open to anyone in Shetland and entirely voluntary but promoted through partners and front-line services in order to meet people’s needs best.
The project has been rolled out nationally but originated in Shetland when it was observed that some young people were not taking up sports and recreational activities they had previously shown an interested in, due to lack of appropriate sports clothing or fear of embarrassment at what they might wear to an activity.
While the original focus was on young people and families, the project now works with all ages in the community.
In the last year, the focus has been reaching out to rural communities across Shetland, partnering with community groups, local events and the Living Well Hubs. This can help remove stigma of the use of the donated items and listening to individuals and family’s needs to better understand how to remove barriers to sport and leisure in the future.
This has been built on a partnership approach between Sports & Leisure staff and a network of frontline services (teachers, social work, employability staff) as well as community development staff and local organisations/events such as Ability Shetland, the Sandwick Family Fun Day and North Mainland’s ‘Bruckland’. All these partners support signposting and promotion of both donation and collection of goods and also to support individuals to remove their barriers to taking part in an activity in a sensitive and discreet way.
In the last year over 400 individuals have collected some sort of sports or outdoor wear (often on behalf of family members). In order to increase uptake, the collections are often discreet and anonymous; this makes measuring the impact after the goods are distributed difficult. However frontline services have given feedback below:
“We are seeing children now able to play for their football club. I have one lady who I passed on a winter jacket and a pair of walking shoes. She has been able to go for walks - this would have been previously inaccessible for her.”
Staff have observed a large and quick turnover of the boot collection scheme which shows that high numbers are both donating and collecting items. This may be due to overall increases in Costs of Living in Shetland for more people but also an increase in awareness of the positive impact on the environment and sustainability by such actions.
There has been feedback from schools saying that this scheme has made the difference between some children taking part in PE classes or sports competitions and not participating. There are also examples of younger children trying sports for first time (especially girls).
“Families we work with - especially the children - don’t feel excluded and are able to access PE, swimming and have good trainers for day to day use.”
This contributes to the Partnership’s ‘People’ and ‘Money’ priorities through working with communities to provide innovative solutions to the issues they face, enabling people to keep active, and minimising outgoings from the support available.