#WeMove

Impact statements from communities

What kind or people or communities do you or your organisation support?

We work with people with mental health problems, alcohol and substance abuse.

Offer families over the summer holidays free activities based around the Llandrindod catchment area.

Flying Start work with families with children aged 0-4 who live in a Flying Start area. Flying Start is the Welsh Government's flagship scheme to ensure that families in targeted postcode areas (which are at risk of poverty and deprivation) receive the best start in life.

People living in rural environments often experiencing social and/or economic deprivation. We particularly work with young people from these areas many of which also may have additional learning needs.

Families with Under 5's who live in areas that are affected by deprivation and poverty.

Early Years - Flying Start settings

Children aged 2-4 years and their families

Targeted work with a variety of community members, we work with any age group, we have priorities to provide more support to vulnerable young people and adults, especially focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion - Impelo have always helped us to achieve this. We also host a training programme for school staff, and preschool setting staff to upskill them in a variety of areas linked to physical activity and nutrition. We also have priorities for performance and pathways, to ensure everyone has the access to physical activity opportunities from grassroots level to elite.

Our involvement with Impelo has been as a local secondary school. As the lead for Expressive Arts at Brecon High School I was able to liaise very productively with Impelo to customise a range of inspiring Arts projects for a variety of Deep Learning days and lead creative schools projects. These projects involved the whole cross section of user groups in school from stimulating the more able and talented performers to the entire SEND umbrella of social, psychological needs that exist in a local secondary school.The latest project involved working with the AOLE leads for both Expressive Arts and PE to target two working groups of students across KS3 who we considered to be displaying barriers to fully participating in kinaesthetic learning and activities. These students ended up being an eclectic mix of students some of whom were officially on the autistic spectrum, some students with eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and students experimenting with gender identity.

Secondary school aged pupils in a bilingual setting

Can you tell us about how working with Impelo has benefitted the communities/ people you work with? (If you've not worked directly with us, perhaps you could identify ways in which you've seen our impact within the community)

Working with Impelo has made a massive impact on our clients and also on the community. We have managed to not just occupy time with new activities in art and dance we have also had massive support with using space giving my clients that are well into their recovery a space they feel safe and unjudged and supported. This has made a massive change in attitude, in emotional support and being more confident within my client base

Over the past 3 years Impleo have been able to offer sessions to the community over the summer holidays. The dance sessions have been to a variety of ages from 1 - 16. It has introduced young people to dance and inspired some to continue regulars session. As costs were met by our funding, Impleo sessions were offered free to participants. This gave young people an opportunity to have something to do, keep fit, meet friend's and make new ones. Its promoted mental health within Mother and toddlers and confidence within them selves.

The families we work with have found the Impelo sessions invaluable. Without Impelo, these families and children would not have been able to access these sessions. The reasons being, these sort of sessions are not accessible in their area and / or they are unable to afford to pay for these sessions for their children. Impelo provide families with opportunities to experience dance and movement and help to encourage families and children to maintain a physical lifestyle in an enjoyable way. The knowledge that Impelo staff members hold, also mean that the sessions are devised to help ensure that a child's development is promoted and this is vital in Flying Start. The sessions we have held have given parents the confidence to undertake physical activity with their children and have shown parents how they can support their child's learning and development from the very early years / months. These opportunities are vital to our families, who live in some of our most deprived areas.

It gave access to young people to high quality training and performance opportunities with a professional dance company. Raising career aspirations and role models for those young people who may wish to follow a dance career going forward and promoting transferable skills such as confidence building, team work skills and self belief. It also gave access to people in rural communities to access contemporary dance as audiences.

Impelo has supported us with providing much needed activity in the community, supporting with summer programmes, supporting local parent and toddler groups with incorporating dance and movement into their weekly sessions. Impelo staff have worked with our childcare settings to enhance their skills with including dance and music and movement into their sessions. Their work had has included packs to practitioners and families, ideas and demonstrations at events. We have trust in the work that Impelo provides and know their work heavily supports our Flying start key messages and the healthy development of our under 5's both physically, emotionally and Socially. Families speak so highly of the sessions with Impelo and feel its their weekly sanctuary. The waiting list to access the group speaks for itself.

Working with Impelo has been fantastic , all of the children and staff within our settings have had so much out of Impelo. They are fantastic with our children and they have been able to get some of our non confident , non verbal children to also enjoys their movement and dance sessions which was heart warming to see. They totally understand our ethos and what is best for some of our most vulnerable children and families.

Sparking an early interest in dance and movement, inspiring practitioners to use dance as part of our everyday provision. Many families have gone on to sign up for dance classes after their children have experienced dance at the preschool

Impelo help us to engage with essential target groups in our communities. They hold the relevant qualifications and have the necessary skill sets to target hard to reach groups and have a huge amount of success with all projects and programmes they facilitate and coordinate! Impelo are a group of talented professionals, paired with passion and enthusiasm to make a real difference in Powys and beyond! Without their support and enthusiasm to help ensuring there are opportunities that enable everyone in Powys to access affordable and sustainable activities linked with movement and dance, our work would simply be so much harder, and so many Powys people would lose out. Impelo also provide some fantastic resources, created internally, leaving behind huge legacies of their work wherever they are, and helping others feel comfortable with movement and dance. Impelo have the expertise to guide Sport Powys' by providing insight and data to demonstrate need and demand in Powys which helps my service (Sport Powys) prioritise effectively.

It became obvious very early on in these sessions that establishing a group identity other than the one that was their usual class or even year group and certainly friendship group had immense benefits. The skills and techniques used by the practitioners Clara and Harlan Rust created an environment of trust and play that empowered the students to feel relaxed and imaginative. Both practitioners also stimulated the group intellectually to problem solve, reinvent existing games and simply to have the confidence to move and interact without inhibition. The testimony of the students in terms of anticipation and excitement for the weekly session was obvious. "This is a space I can be me in " " I feel free in this space to not be shy" " This session challenges me to think differently

"Excellent opportunity to work on a cross-generational project ' EPYNT'. Pupils had the opportunity to participate in workshops and a performance whch heped develop their creativity and thinking skills.

As a commissioning manager I am incredibly grateful for Impelo’s involvement in our covid recovery planning. The impact of the pandemic on children's development is well documented and there is clear evidence for the need of universal opportunities that promote social, emotional and physical well-being. In partnership with flying start, impelo have provided universal sessions in our most deprived wards in powys.

Can you tell us a bit about your experience in partnership with Impelo?

It has been one of the best experiences that I have experienced, the empathy that is felt, feeling compelled even when it is not needed to want to help and support me and my clients at any cost, making everyone feel welcome, finding activities in art, music, dance that fit and are for any person, being able to flexible and just the wonderful staff as well has made such a great experience in partnership in Llandrindod Wells

Impelo represent so much more than just the dance centre in Llandrindod. It is a company that is working on a 30 + year reputation of Dance and taking it to people within the Powys county. If there is no grass routes from within our county how will be able to inspire the next generation of dancers? If there are no venues for Cardiff based providers to tour how will our young people be inspired to see dance?

We have worked with Impelo to provide free sessions for our families who live in a Flying Start area.

We've worked in partnership with Impelo for a number of years and every project we work on is always a joy. Staff are helpful and supportive and there is real partnership working between our organisation in terms of sharing capacity staff and skills in all aspects of projects from marketing, recruitment, project management and delivery. The community of people that Impelo has built through it's activity. Impelo have helped us to ensure that our performance and outreach work reaches and benefits as many people in the Powys area as possible and is reaching particularly young people in the area that it will benefit hugely in terms of their mental health and well-being and transferable life skills.

I feel really thankful that the dance centre and the work that Impelo does is in our local community. Their work is worth its weight in gold. Their eagerness to support and work collaboratively is unmatched. Their proactive approach to engaging families and professionals is of huge value.

Impelo has worked with our Childcare Settings, Nursery Nurses, attended and supported our groups, supported us at events and summer programmes.

Jemma has been our main contact and she has been so easy to work with ,communication is fantastic and she even joined our childcare conference which was another great success.

Impelo have delivered dance workshops to the children at Jigsaw and have inspired both the children and practitioners

Impelo provide a versatile, inclusive and sustainable service where everyone has the opportunity to be active and express themselves through movement. Impelo are well thought out, and a well planned organisation who can adapt to delivering online or face to face across a challenging county such as Powys. They are an attractive organisation to work with and represent.

Impelo have been dynamic ,inspiring, reliable, professional, reflective practioners of the highest calibre.
Harlan and Clara and Beth as a liaising officer were brilliant role models for these young people. They are locally educated dancers who through their association with Impelo have been able to bring the mind bending possibility that….

…true creativity can bring to young people back to their community.

Our young people in school looked at them and thought whatever my size, shape, physical ability, gender I too could be that confident, kind, powerful person. All three of these young people despite their impressive Dance training have been able to return to and work in Brecon in a position to give back some of the benefits of the creative education they enjoyed to stimulate the next generation of artists. Brecon is a rural area with hidden levels of inactivity and deprivation.

Lots of students are transported home to farms and villages. Therefore you have to capture their creativity whilst they are in school.

Despite the best efforts of Drama and PE teachers sometimes you need the imaginative curve ball that companies like Impelo offer. Their work exists to encourage our voiceless, locked in students who are increasingly struggling to make sense of the world. School can sometimes seem hostile a place where a diet of powerpoint lessons, passive learning and the restrictions of a classroom only add to students anxieties. Some of the Am Dram opportunities on offer in Brecon outside of school are admirable but are not offering the same level of devising, researching, developing that we understand as true excellence and innovation that I have witnessed Impelo offering. As an experienced drama teacher I have to say that some of the techniques I witnessed I was so impressed by that I shared with fellow Drama teachers across the country. There are Drama departments in West Sussex and Scotland using scarves as stimulus for physical devised work as we speak. Excellent communication and preparation. Wonderfull opportunity to be part of the project and for so many pupils to gain from the experience.

Impelo have worked alongside our community team to provide opportunities that meet so many children’s rights.

Is there anything else you want to say about Impelo?

As I work with many organisations its not an overstatement to say, this has been the most helpful partnership and the most rewarding that I have experienced within the last year

Impleo has the community at its heart, and this community is across Powys. It is the ripple in the water to introduction to dance for many. It works with other arts organisations to inspire and promote the arts. Living rurally and accessing quality art is very difficult. I will be very very saddened to see the loss of this company.

From a personal perspective, I have accessed Impelo with my own children and the sessions are invaluable in an area such as Powys. As a parent, it has given me the knowledge and confidence to undertake activities with my children to promote their physical development and emotional wellbeing. Powys is a large county by size, however small population. Funding challenges for the county mean that quite often children and young people suffer from the lack of opportunities available to them. Children in rural areas have limited access to theatres, the arts and dance opportunities. They quite often have to travel a fair distance, or pay a substantial amount of money to access these opportunities.

Impelo bridged this gap by providing sessions across all areas of the county, as well as at an affordable rate.

They also look to work with families who may be struggling financially by providing concessionary rates to ensure that dance and movement is accessible to all and not just those who can afford it. By removing this funding, ACW have now taken away this opportunity for these children to access these opportunities. As a Powys citizen from birth, it is extremely disappointing to see this decision as I feel like rural areas like Powys are always overlooked.

The work of Impelo is irreplaceable. From our partnership projects we can see how they have impacted so positively on their community members' (of all ages and backgrounds) well-being, and provide access to dance to people that might otherwise never access it. We hope that they find a way to continue into the future and hope to continue to work in partnership with them.

I just feel utter sadness about the funding and feel sorry that our rural communities are missing out again.

More funding should be provided to Impelo not less.

Their reach is far greater than the dance centre, Impelo is part of the community, reducing services such as impelo will just encourage isolation which is the exact opposite of what our rural families need post pandemic. Reduce Impelo and you reduce the sparkle and light that is very much needed when we're seeing ever increasing families presenting with the darkness that comes with anxiety, depression. Not having them will be a massive loss to the families Llandrindod, we should be looking at ways to keep Impelo.

It would be a very sad day if Impelo ceased to exist in our County in their current format. I know that other counties use Impelo and value their work greatly, and I appreciate everything they do so much. Impelo provide a service that is both bespoke, professional and inclusive. I have never met any other organisation that has the determination and drive to continuously develop and thrive the way Impelo does. There is no other organisation that can compete with Impelo, to the point where I cannot even list or name another organisation that would or could take their place, in what they provide for Powys people.

Creativity is at the heart of the Curriculum For Wales. Brecon is geographically at the heart of Wales. Impelo is the heartbeat to getting it's young people moving.

What a shortsighted and negative decision to abandon it's funding.I can’t talk highly enough about the impelo team. Their passion for movement and all its benefits is infectious. They have provided a consistent offer across the county that has been well received, parents and children are asking for more.