Burton Canoe Club

A lift for equality

Burton Canoe Club is a community sports club. It is open to everyone, no matter their age or ability/disability.

Burton Canoe Club offers many different types of canoeing and kayaking to the local communities, including schools, youth groups, disability groups. Their weekly sessions and visits to local, regional and national venues are delivered exclusively by volunteers, which allows the Club to be open to every budget.

But there are still some physical inequalities within the club, with some areas inaccessible to people with ambulant difficulties. That is why they decided to launch the “Lifting the Threshold” project. Through this, they will make all the areas of the accommodation accessible to everyone, and they will purchase Bell Boats – excellent crafts for those with a range of disabilities and/or a lack of confidence preventing them to use smaller crafts. The goal is to eventually put all visitors and users of the facilities on an equal level.

Funding provided by the VINCI UK Foundation: £10,000.

This grant will be use to fund a lift. This is the most costly single item which needs to be funded in the shortest period of time of the project, but this is the “door opener”. It is necessary for the project and will lead the way towards the other changes.

VINCI Sponsor: Andrew Smart, Management Accountant, Roger Bullivant.

• His experience will allow Andrew to give financial and budgeting advice to support the Treasurer and Trustees of the charity.
• He will also be able to offer some general guidance on financial matters to the club’s management team.