A pioneering charity dedicated to ensuring every woman has safe access to exercise is celebrating after being nominated for two prizes at the London Sport Awards.
About TheMovement Charity
TheMovement Charity, which operates across London, was founded by Fiona Roberts in 2020. Its mission is to guarantee that every woman can exercise safely. A key pillar of their work is implementing trauma-informed practice into their own free exercise classes, while also training fitness professionals in this approach.
Award Nominations
The charity has been recognized with nominations in the Safer Sport Award and the Health & Wellbeing Award, in association with NHS England – London. The award ceremony is scheduled for 29 April.
“We are absolutely thrilled,” said trustee Becky Marlow. “We are a very small charity, so to be nominated is a huge honour. To have our name out there, and the name of the charity being told to more people so that we can spread the message, is fantastic.”
Goals and Impact
“Our ultimate aim is that one day all training providers include trauma-informed practice as part of the basic package of any fitness qualification,” Marlow added. “At the moment, we have to provide it as an additional CPD course and we would love for it to become the bread and butter. For us to be nominated, it means more people will hear about theMovement Charity and they might be drawn to find out more. Hopefully it means we can help more women and people access to exercise and restore their right to exercise.”
Last year alone, theMovement Charity delivered over 500 free trauma-informed exercise sessions to survivors of abuse. They also trained almost 100 fitness professionals in a trauma-informed approach, while providing hundreds of items of clothing and footwear for free.
Locations and Services
The charity is based across London, working primarily in Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Islington, Camden, Southwark, Walthamstow, Croydon, Ealing, and Wandsworth.
Marlow explained: “We have three strings to our bow: we focus on movement, trauma-informed practice, and advocacy. On our charity side, we believe that exercise is a fundamental right. We are really aware that in women, particularly those who have been through any sort of disadvantage or trauma, how much they decline in taking up physical activity and how many barriers there are for these women. Those can be safety concerns, financial hardship, or the lasting effects of whatever trauma they have experienced.”
“As theMovement, we try to remove those barriers. We partner with other charities, like a refuge, where we know there are women there who will really benefit from exercise. So we train up practitioners in trauma-informed practice, and they go into refuges and deliver free exercise sessions. We also do education. Within the fitness industry, we are trying to educate as many fitness professionals as we can in what it means to be a trauma-informed practitioner to make exercise as accessible to all people as possible.”
London Sport is a charity that helps all Londoners live longer, healthier, and happier lives through being active. The London Sport Awards, supported by the City of London Corporation, shines a spotlight on the capital’s unsung heroes who are helping Londoners lead more physically active lives.
