Creating legacy in Liverpool with Persimmon

13 October 2022 | All News

Ahead of The 2022 World Gymnastics Championships, we’re working with Persimmon Homes and Liverpool City Council’s Legacy programme to support the refurbishment of local sports facilities, at the same time as working with local young people at risk of disengagement to gain experience and qualifications in the construction trades.

New programme

For the first project in our new programme, we refurbished The Liverpool Gymnastics Club, the grassroots facility that supported Beth Tweddle as she started her career, one of Britain’s most successful gymnasts, with an Olympic Bronze Medal, three World titles, five European titles and seven British titles to her name.

We were also joined at the project by Mayor for the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, a former bricklayer himself. He enjoyed meeting Kaitlyn, Demi, Lee and Liam, some of our young VIY volunteers from the project from Employability Solutions Merseyside, who support young people with an alternative pathway to education and training.

VIY has welcomed 25 young people from Employability Solutions Merseyside, Prudentia Education and Kings Liverpool Academy Liverpool who’ve volunteered to renovate the club, painting the walls in line with the club colours and building new storage and a reception area, with10 City and Guilds Entry Level 3 accreditations gained in painting and decorating.

Persimmon, who we worked with in 2021 at Flo Skatepark in Nottingham, have added to the VIY volunteer experience offering site visits to their Edinburgh campus, Anfield, a number of staff volunteering alongside the young people and are now considering a number of apprenticeship opportunities for our VIY volunteers. Other partners include match-funding from Sport England, Dulux, who have donated all of the paint for the club’s refurbishment, as well as the local Travis Perkins branch.

This new programme marks a return to Merseyside for Team VIY, following previous projects refurbishing Mersey Bowmen Tennis Club and Portico Vine Rugby League Club in St Helens.

Keep in touch with our full pipeline of work across the UK and how to get involved here