Strongbones Children’s Charitable Trust have been working hard over the past year to ensure the swimming facilities at Shorefield Country Park are accessible and inclusive to everyone.
In 2023, we purchased a holiday home on the park and adapted it to make sure it was totally accessible. We had a ramp and large verandah installed so our families can easily access the holiday home. We purchased a Centrobed profiling bed, had a H-track ceiling hoist installed in the master bedroom, purchased a shower cradle and Molift mobile hoist to ensure every child and young person could use our holiday home. Once our caravan was fully accessible and adapted to meet our young people’s needs, we started communicating with the staff at Shorefield to see how we could make the swimming pools accessible.
After lots of research and virtual meetings, we agreed to install a Changing Places Facility with a ceiling track hoist and a changing bench, a Panda Pod Pool Hoist, an Aqua Tilt Pool Chair, a Silvalea Floatation Aid and an Oxford Dipper pool hoist at the outdoor pool.
Recently, we invited one of our families to have a little break in our holiday home to trial out the new swimming equipment; Ben did such a great job and made sure all the equipment was perfect for the children and young people we support, also the general public that can access the swimming facilities while on site.
Here are two videos of Ben and his amazing family trialling the swimming equipment.
We can’t wait to see more people using this fantastic equipment!
Working together, we can ensure swimming is accessible to everyone!
