Support Skate Buddies to support the community

Hi I'm Empress Gibbs, creator and founder of Skate Buddies. I am very passionate about supporting young people and adults with the repair, maintenance and improvement of their mental health, well-being and fitness. In June 2023, I started Skate Buddies as a way for young people and adults to experience the fun, joy and support that I experienced in the skate community, which ultimately impacted on my mental health in a positive way.

We now have 21 Skate Buddies' Community Team Members across the country in Birmingham, Sandwell, Central and South London, Gloucester, Leicester, Leeds, Nottingham and Cardiff that offer free skating meet-up sessions in the community uplifting, empowering and encouraging adults to skate and improve their mental health.

Their are 695,000 children and young people aged 5 - 16 years old that are clinically affected by mental health illness. A heart-breaking 67,000 of these children and young people were seriously depressed, of which 8,000 children under the age of 10 were severely depressed. An estimated 280 million people in the world have and suffer with depression, and more than 700,000 of these people die due to suicide.

Roller skating offers so many physical health and wellbeing benefits, like improving your mobility and agility. It can also impact positively on an individuals psychological and emotional wellbeing, which are essential to the repair, maintenance and improvement of a persons mental health and well-being. This is why we are raising money to purchase skates, so that we can start running much needed skate session for young people in schools, parks and youth centres and adults in the community. We believe in community power, action and co-creation, and with the current climate of funding and the bankruptcy of Birmingham City Council there is no guarantee that we will be able to provide or maintain these sessions for the young people and adults that really need it.

Help us to fundraise £2,500 that will provide:

• 30 pairs of adjustable skates for children and young people in size UK 11-1, 2-4, 5-7.
• 15 Sets of protective gear (elbow/ knee pads and wrist guards).
• 15 pairs of adults skates sizes 8 , 9, 10.

We have purchased with the donations so far:

• 20 pairs of adults skates (5x size5, 5x size6, 10x size 7 and 1x size10)
• 9 sets of protective gear
• 6 set of protective gear were donated by Skate Hut (total of 15 sets)

The vaule of these items came to £1,200. We recieved an amazing discount from Skate Hut in support for Skate Buddies, so we paid £450.