Charitable gym in Bath puts out call for new members amid covid financial struggles
Bosses at the YMCA fear their gym could be in danger if members don't come back
A charity in Bath is urging people to join its gym as it struggles to recoup finances lost during the pandemic.
YMCA, which does work with vulnerable people across Bristol, Somerset and Wiltshire as well as Bath, invests money from its gym on Broad Street into its charitable work.
But they've told us membership is down more than half since the first lockdown hit and it could impact how they help people.
Trish Fairbeard is their Marketing and Business Development Director.
"The main aim of our charitable work is around working with vulnerable people," she told us.
"A lot of that is focussed around 16 to 25 year-olds but we work with vulnerable adults as well and that might be through our supported housing, or it might just be our support services or hubs that we run, where people can get advice, help and support and be signposted to other agencies or other charities that might be better suited to work with them.
"As a charity we do get a certain amount of funding for some of our supported housing work but we've always tried to raise our own money as well."
On top of the gym, the YMCA also runs two commercial hostels across Bristol and Bath.
The one in Bristol is currently being rented and used by another charity St Mungos to house homeless people, while the one in Bath is working as normal.
"Any surplus funds from our commercial activities are what cover our central costs and then anything else left after that goes into our charitable work," Trish said.
Much less of that money today, is coming from the gym.
"Pre-pandemic we had nearly 1300 members," she said.
"Post pandemic was a very different story. I think when we originally opened after the first one (lockdown) we were in the 400s.
"We've climbed that back up into the mid 600s now, but that is vital money, vital funds to help support our charitable work."
Simon Burgess manages the health and wellbeing centre.
He has compared their current situation to a shop struggling on the high street.
"People, myself included, we'll shop online through various different portals, and yet then we walk down the high street and we go 'oh I used to love that shop and I used to love that shop and that shop and that shop and it's not there anymore', because we didn't go there to use it," he said.
"The health and wellbeing industry is exactly the same...
"As all businesses if you don't have enough money coming in, i.e. members to pay the bills and to cover the staffing costs and to cover what you're trying to achieve, then you can't stay open long term.
If you want to find out more about the centre including opening times and prices you can do so here.