Rochdale's Fun Dance Class

By Your Trust | 13 December 2023 | TAGS: Celebration, Stories, older adults, Local Pilot

Fun Dance class is a Your Trust session in Rochdale. The session runs twice a week now and is one of their busiest community classes.

The session started after the Covid-19 pandemic and was supported by Local Pilot funding.

The Local Pilot funding gave an opportunity to trial and build up this brand new community class after the pandemic. People were still nervous and hesitant regarding getting out and being around others. Numbers were extremely low at the start, with attendance of approximately 5 participants for the first few months. The Local Pilot funding gave us the time and patience with no targets or pressures to build the class up in our own time. It is now one of our busiest community classes with about 18 participants attending each week. We get a few men coming along too.

One of the barriers for participants was the payment method. Before covid, participants could just turn up to sessions without booking and pay by cash when they arrived but we had to change this to pre-booking. We spent quite a bit of time supporting participants with the booking process, and building trust and relationships with them to guide them through new I.T methods and booking systems. We have also trialled a pre-paid cash voucher scheme to support participants who don’t use the internet or I.T so there are several options for participants to attend to overcome barriers.

Take a look at the video below to see the group in action and hear from the instructor and participants around how valuable the session has become for them.