Major cash boost for Crawley community group

Crawley Parkour, which has recently become a Community Interest Company following a long and successful partnership with Crawley Borough Council and Freedom Leisure (operators of K2 Crawley), has announced it will launch full-time coaching from a warehouse located in Linchmere Place, Ifield, after winning the investment from the Aviva Community Fund.

Parkour is a training discipline using movement including running, climbing, swinging, vaulting and jumping.

The funds awarded to Crawley Parkour from the Aviva Community Fund will be used to purchase Parkour and fitness equipment, as well as safety flooring.

The Aviva Community Fund 2017 was a nationwide initiative which launched in September and called upon passionate local residents to submit a project close to their heart to be in with a chance of securing funding ranging from up to £1,000 to £25,000.

Each organisation then had to galvanise the support of their local community to vote for their entry in four categories: Health and Wellbeing, Skills for Life, Community Support and Inclusivity.

Over 5.5 million votes were placed with over 550 projects benefitting overall.

Dave Downey, Freedom Leisure Active Communities Manager for Crawley (and non-executive Director of Crawley Parkour CIC), said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Crawley Parkour. This funding can be extremely difficult to, due to the huge amount of entries received, so to not only secure enough votes to get to judging stage, but to also wow the judges and be a winner is exceptional.

“This funding comes at the perfect time, as it will enable Crawley Parkour to purchase extra equipment and safety flooring for its brand new facility, ahead of the grand opening in February. On behalf of Crawley Parkour, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted, and of course to Aviva for providing this amazing financial backing to the community funding scheme – this money will enable us to really make a positive impact on people’s lives.”