Brookes Climb Facilitate Project One’s First Taster Session

Thursday, 10 June 2021 saw Project One run its first Taster Session for a group of young people from Oxford.

One year after its launch date, Brookes Climb were proud to host Project One’s first round of Taster Sessions. Two groups of young people from EMBS Community College joined Lucas (a Project One Instructor and Coach) for two hours of fun in the Climbing Wall. The young people who attended were introduced to both bouldering and Top-Roping for the first time.

“We had such a blast and can’t wait for many more sessions” - Carmen, Project One

Project One was founded in 2020 by Carmen McIlveen who became a Climbing Instructor so she was able to take some of the children from her housing estate climbing. “The lack of diversity within the sport became too much of an issue to ignore…” so Carmen set about finding ways to reduce the main barrier to participation, the cost.

Project One is dedicated to inclusion and increasing and supporting BAME people within UK climbing. They are confident that providing both free and subsidised access to BAME children will increase the particpation numbers and ensure there is ongoing support for their long term involvement. Their goal is, “to close this gap and close it forever.”

In March 2021 Brookes Sport started their partnership with Project One. For Project One, partnerships with climbing walls and local community groups help “to increase access, education and implement practices that will continue to develop and promote diversity within UK climbing for years to come”.

We’re so excited to see where this partnership goes as they are an “amazing influence to so many in the community” - Melissa Bacon, Assistant Climbing Centre Manager.

Project One are also interested in finding out the demographics of climbers and more importantly, why people are not participating. To help in this research you can complete this survey.

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