Case Study 3 – Good Gym
Areas of impact: Elderly, Mental Health
Social enterprise location: Tower Hamlets, London, UK
Short description of activities:
Good Gym addresses the loneliness and isolation experienced by some elderly people. It also motivates those looking for a reason to go out for a run, contributing to the fitness and health of the runners who visit the elderly as part of their Good Gym route.
Good Gym provides a supplementary visit and delivery service for elderly immobile people. It pairs those that want to get fit with isolated less-mobile people in their area. Runners jog to the elderly person’s house, deliver a particular item and have a brief chat before they are on their way again.
It helps people get fit by providing a good reason to go for a run and helps the person being visited by providing them with some friendly human contact and delivery of a newspaper or similar small item.
Timing of the visits is up to the runner and the person they are visiting. Runners have to commit to at least one run/visit per week.
Good Gym conducts Criminal Record Bureau checks to make sure the runners and the elderly who participate in the scheme are safe.
Why it's a social innovation:
Good Gym arose out of a frustration with normal gyms being a waste of energy and human potential. After a year or so of thinking, testing and developing ideas, the project was submitted to Social Innovation Camp in December 2008.
Loneliness and isolation are key issues for older people in Britain today; 13 per cent of people over 65 in the UK say that they always or often feel lonely, and 17 per cent of those living alone see family and friends less than once a week. Good Gym is an example of Social Innovation. It demonstrates a ‘fine grain’ approach to volunteering, where participation is based on frequent low impact activities which are integrated usefully into the participant’s life.
Good Gym aims “to develop a new model of voluntary action by focusing on the positive experience of the volunteer. It is hoped that this approach will result in a higher number and quality of volunteers. The model aims to make it as easy as possible for people to integrate voluntary participation into their lives.” Specifically, Good Gym provides a way of motivating people to exercise on a regular basis while also reducing the isolation experienced by older and immobile people.
What is its design aspect?
Good Gym demonstrates a service design approach to social innovation. It identifies stakeholders’ needs and views the volunteers as a resource that assists in the delivery of elderly care. The enrolment procedure, matching process, online and real world activities are all products of a design approach making the initiative accessible and bringing significant benefits to users.
Main actors and interactions (including stakeholders, networks, services and revenue streams):
- People seeking motivation to take regular exercise and get fit
- Elderly and immobile people seeking more human contact at home
- Social services, GPs, district nurses, carers and other community groups seeking to provide support services to the elderly
- Thinkpublic (support)
- UnLtd (seed funding)
- Good Gym Social Innovation Camp Team: Alice Casey, Matt Collins, Ana Garcia, Ivo Gormley, Jacques Mizan, Rohan Gunatillake, Tom Taylor, Ed Whyman
Social Impact:
- Develops a new model for voluntary action
- Provides elderly, less mobile people with regular useful contact with the outside world and increases their quality of life
- Provides motivation to those wishing to take regular exercise
Economic Impact:
Good Gym provides therapeutic benefits for those elderly people that receive increased human contact as well as for the runners who participate from regular exercise.
These benefits reduce the use of, and costs associated with, care such as;
1 hospital admission = £3,000 pa
1 residential admission = £15,000 pa
1 nursing admission = £2,700 pa
On a micro scale, local businesses benefit from the runners buying milk or newspapers for the elderly person and the volunteer is also saving their gym membership fees!
Environmental Impact:
Good Gym encourages people to exercise in a way that is far better for the environment than, say, going to the gym. Instead of driving to a centre to use electronic fitness equipment, users have minimal impact exercising in their local community.
Links:
thegoodgym.org/
www.socialdesignsite.com/content/view/217
thegoodgym.org/howitworks.html
www.sicamp.org/?page_id=270
www.sicamp.org/?page_id=316
twitter.com/goodgym