Our impact
Indirock is a social enterprise, which means that we’re a not-for-profit organisation rooted in our community.
Boldering has many benefits (some of which we’ve compiled in this handy blog post) so we’re always excited to share our love of bouldering with new people in our community of Southend and beyond!
We have three clear aims:
Ensuring as many people as possible can enjoy bouldering in Southend
Being part of the revival of our City centre
Supporting vulnerable young people from our local area into work
We don’t usually shout much about what we do, so we thought it was about time we compiled some of our impact to date! There’s always more to do, but we hope you’re as impressed as we are with how far we’ve come.
We opened our doors in March 2022. As of August 2024, here’s how we’re doing against all three of our aims.
1. Ensuring as many people as possible can enjoy bouldering in Southend:
We work hard to make sure Indirock is as accessible and inclusive as it can be, from a physical and psychological perspective as well as from a financial one. Before we were built, we worked with many local charities and community groups to co-design our facilities from an accessibility perspective. We continue to work with our local council and many charties to offer discounted and/or adaptive climbing sessions.
To date we’ve worked extensively with local charities such as SEND the Right Message, running weekly climbing courses for SEND children, and on one off or shorter courses with charities like Trust Links, and Southend on Sea Rape Crisis. We’ve booked out the whole of Indirock for events with charities such as Southend in Sight and Diabetes UK. We’ve funded free climbing passes for refugees through Welcome to the UK.
Starting in Autumn 2024, we’re working with Trust Links to run a programme aimed at reducing antisocial behaviour in Southend. Funded by the National Lottery Million Hours Fund, we plan to deliver 3800 hours of youth work over 18 months. This will take the form of climbing sessions three times a week that are supervised by our coaches and a youth worker, for children aged 11-18 who don’t have a reliable adult who can supervise them. These will include cafe vouchers with each visit, so attendees never have to climb hungry.
Because we can’t always rely on grants to help, we also self-fund many of the generous discounts we offer. This includes free climbing for refugees and half-price climbing for anyone on universal credit.
To date we have:
Hosted nearly 3000 climbs for charity & community groups
Hosted 2200 climbs for primary & secondary schools
Discounted 7000 climbs*
*Most of which was funded by us
Discounted nearly 12,000 orders in our coffee shop*
2. Being part of the revival of our City centre:
Much of Southend-on-Sea is in the bottom 10% of deprivation in the UK. Our high street has struggled in recent decades and so a big part of what we care about is starting a new chapter for our City, giving everyone something to be proud of again. We chose to locate Indirock in a shopping centre on our high street and are proud of the huge footfall we have generated to our building and high street since opening.
Thanks to a grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, this year we were able to purchase a unique mobile climbing wall. This enables us to bring the experience of bouldering out and about, where we’re providing free climbing at a huge range of community events. This wall is one of only a handful in the UK and can be seen in action here.
We buy as much as possible from other local businesses and always look for opportunities to collaborate, celebrate and shout about the amazing work of small businesses fighting the good fight in Southend.
To date we have:
Seen over 25,000 individuals register with us*
Hosted over 78,000 un-instructed climbs
Hosted over 1500 soft play sessions for our youngest climbers
Gave some 600 FREE climbs on our mobile climbing wall
Held 20 monthly markets for local micro-businesses*
*After trialling a number of mini-markets inside Indirock, in April 2023 we co-founded a new makers’ market for local micro-businesses, called Big Up Southend. This is hosted in our building and is all about celebrating Southend’s potential.
3. Supporting vulnerable young people from our local area into work:
Our founder, Emily, previously co-founded a prison charity called Finding Rhythms. She witnessed first hand the need for vulnerable young people to be supported and given opportunities by employers, not just hand-outs from charities. It was this experience which gave her the drive to set up Indirock, with the aim of becoming an employer which gave real opportunities to young people and diverted them from crime.
To date we’ve held courses and provided work experience to pupils in alternative schools such as Sutton House Academy and YMCA Community School, young adults being supervised by Active Essex Foundation, those on probation through Forward Trust, as well as many neurodivergent young people through our partnership with SEND the Right Message.
To date we have:
Supported 42 vulnerable young people through 125 work experience shifts
Hosted 2 x 6-month traineeships, plus 8 x 1-month traineeships scheduled this year
Case study
Connor (name has been changed) was 15 and in Year 10 at the time of his voluntary work experience with Indirock, taking place over a week in June 2023. His school, one of the alternative provisions in our City, said:
“Connor chose to do his work experience at Indirock as this was a familiar environment for him having visited with the school and he felt comfortable there. He has low self-esteem so this was really important for him.
As far as possible, students are expected to source their own work placements but several are unable to do this for one reason or another. Unfortunately many do not have the same family contacts and home support framework that some mainstream students have. They often lack the social skills and self-esteem to seek work placements independently without support either from home or from school. Additionally some employers can be put off by the term ‘alternative provision’ and automatically expect the worst; consequently we are finding it increasingly difficult to source work placements.
I enjoyed learning how to talk with customers, work the till and things in the café and socialise with other staff at work. I was able to develop my social skills at work.
Many of our students face substantial challenges in life and it is really important that they are placed with supportive employers to help them reach their full potential. Connor may well have struggled in a less supportive environment.
During the course of the placement Connor arrived on time each day and, according to feedback, completed work to a good standard and was respectful and hardworking. This has resulted in increased self-esteem as he knows that he can succeed outside of school. This has enabled him to spread his wings a little and try a different work placement in a completely new environment this time around – he will be doing his work experience at another sports facility this December. He still thoroughly enjoys his trips to Indirock and has developed his interest in bouldering.”
More testimonials:
Sustainability at Indirock
We have designed Indirock to be as carbon efficient as possible, and our eco efforts have been recognised twice by European funding from LoCASE. Our lighting is all low energy LED, with much of it on automatic sensors so lights aren’t left on unnecessarily. Our ventilation system uses heat recovery technology.
We use amazing local business Southend Refills for all our cleaning products, meaning we create next to no plastic waste from these products. We have also made our café almost plastic free, selling only cans or glass bottles of drinks, and using biodegradable packaging for takeaways. We encourage our customers to reduce waste through charging 10p for takeaway cups and selling Indirock branded reusable cups. We have also signed up to the Surfers Against Sewage, Plastic Free Communities pledge.
We’re always keen to keep improving, as we want everyone to have the chance to enjoy Indirock. If you have any ideas for how we could make your experience better or introduce more communities to the love of bouldering, please let us know on [email protected]!