“Run fast your mother and fast for your father, run for your children, for your sisters and brothers” Sang Florence and the Machine and although it was “just a song” it perfectly captured the pressure of our everyday life.
Yes we’re all very busy, we’ve got a job, we’ve got family and friends and we also need to take care of ourselves: work out, eat well and be healthy, so where can you find the time to volunteer?
If you’re lucky enough to have some free time between work and taking your kids to football practice, it usually comes down to choosing between doing something good for yourself and doing something good for someone else.
A UK based organization, has developed a project that will keep people from having to make this choice, as a matter of fact the Good Gym will allow people to dedicate time to themselves without forgetting about others.
The Good Gym, which was developed through the Social Innovation Camp, connects the “runners”, people who are frustrated with the monotony of the gym setting, with the “coaches”, who are people aged over 65 in the runners’ communities. Runners usually jog to their coaches’ house at least once a week, they deliver something nice, a fruit, a newspaper, medicines, or something else that their coaches might need, have a brief chat and leave.
After connecting runners and coaches, the organization checks in with both parties to make sure everything works out.
The project tackles three main challenges: the increasing isolation of elderly people, the difficulty in finding volunteers to work with these groups and the challenges that ordinary people may face in getting physically fit. As a matter of fact 13 percent of elderly people living in the UK say they always or often feel lonely, while 17 percent of those living alone say they see friends and family less than once a week.
Would you like to do something useful for your community and at the same time you’re looking for a good reason to get up from your couch and go for a run?
Get some inspiration here.
