Who we work with
Councils & Local Authorities
We know that councils are under pressure to deliver more with less.
Experience tells us that most Councillors aren't skaters or riders and won’t have delivered provisions for alternative activity before, but they are still expected to setup, procure and manage an asset they likely won't have experience of using.
This is where Activity First comes in. As an independent, asset locked, social enterprise we offer informed and impartial advice, backed up by years of personal and professional experience in developing places for self-organised activity.
We act as a link between you and your community, facilitating a co-production process whereby both parties are relieved of the full responsibility of advocating, instead allowing you to contribute your local knowledge and lived experience.
Most of our services are provided free of charge, particularly up-front to get projects moving. Services like our feasibility studies and funding applications require a small fee to cover the labour costs but by comparison to the internal draw on Council resources, have worked out far cheaper both at inception and in the costs saved over the life-cycle of a project.
With no direct fund, guidelines or procurement templates, we will fill the gap in your provision, remove risk and accelerate programmes.
Community Groups
You have a vision of better provisions in your communities, whether that’s a Skatepark, pump-track, parkour park or anything in between, but you’ve no idea where to start.
Whether you’re a Skater, Rider, Walker, Parent or simply an advocate for the wellbeing of your community, we’re here to help you. Activity First was set up to amplify your voice, add weight to your argument, and get your project off-the ground.
Our resources, guidance and impartial advice are available, free of charge. We want to help you navigate around the hurdles that so often trip projects up.
Architects & Developers
We believe activity should be embedded in the fabric of a community, as vital a thread as any other civic amenity.
Understandably, developers are under pressure by the current government to deliver houses at a rapid rate and as a result provisions for activity appear as an afterthought, to tick a box.
As the name suggests, we want to help developers to consider activity at the earliest possible opportunity, embedding opportunities to be active throughout developments, creating the ‘third spaces’ children and teenagers so desperately need.
It might be that we can re-purpose a commercial setting into a ‘meanwhile space’, create an intervention on a walking route, or advocate for a central hub, bolstered by smaller pocket parks; whatever the outcome, we can work with you, for a small fee (in the context of a development) to make your development an inclusive places.
What is a CIC?
A CIC, or Community Interest Company, is a special type of limited company that exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders.
We operate as a business, but all profits are primarily reinvested into our social objectives, and we're regulated by the government.
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Community benefit: Our main purpose is to provide a benefit to the community, not to make private profit.
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Asset lock: A legal promise that the company's assets will be used for community benefit, that sets limits on what can be paid to shareholders.
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Profit reinvestment: The majority of our profits are reinvested back into the company's social mission.
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Regulation: all CICs are regulated and are required to submit an annual report detailing how we have benefited the community.
