We work with a lot of brilliant organisations that we couldn’t operate without. We wanted to celebrate what we’ve been able to achieve with our partners and to get some inspiration for what we might do next. To this end, on a murky Wednesday morning we held a breakfast event at the BT Tower to bring together lots of our partners to share our ambitions for the future and hear from some special guests about what is possible through the power of social movements.

After a heartfelt introduction from Suzy Christopher, Charity and Community Director for BT, and marathon runner, on her own experience running and doing good with GoodGym Birmingham, our Trustee Ruth Marvel introduced the first of our guest speakers, Chief Executive of Nesta Geoff Mulgan, to reflect on GoodGym and innovation in social movements. His introduction was... sort of complimentary….

"I was initially sceptical of GoodGym being on the original panel that judged it at social innovation camp but I am very happy to have been proved wrong and to have seen it grow so far. I hope that we can see GoodGym continue to grow to every town, city and village in the country."

Geoff then moved on to getting under the skin of what successfully draws people into volunteering in their local area and what GoodGym is doing that taps into this.

"What we've found is that main reason most people don't volunteer is because no one asks them to - we need to find ways of inviting people in.”

Whether it’s running to visit someone, doing a physical task for a community organisation or getting an older person to be a coach, GoodGym constantly calls people to action and asks them to get involved. We’re also a new way of inviting people in that taps into multiple motivations which Geoff really brought to life.

"With GoodGym you feel good about yourself in a physical way and you have the added dopamine rush of helping someone else out- double the happiness."

Next up, Mike Adamson the Chief Executive of British Red Cross (BRC) gave a very honest insight into both the history of social movement through the foundation of the Red Cross 150 years ago, and the evolving nature of volunteering and social action in the present day.

"What we're seeing is, this world [of volunteering] is being disrupted and people are self-mobilising and people are going to Calais and Lesbos to help. We really want to tap into this."

Even with over 20,000 volunteers in the UK, BRC are constantly guarding against complacency, exploring how they can mobilise their wider network of supporters and how they can collaborate with new methods of social action to meet their ambitions.

"We want to be open to innovation and startups outside, there are lots of great projects including Green Gym, Good Company and GoodGym. We know more about what colour pen to encourage them to donate, we want to work to understand better what motivates to people to take action."

Mike also reminded us all that connections start close to home:

"I will endeavour to persuade my daughter to join GoodGym in Leeds"

We’ll keep a look out for her when we get going there. Finally, Baroness Tessa Jowell shared her reflections both on GoodGym and her experience from the 2012 Olympics. Her initial message was clear - simplicity is the key to making this stuff work.

"When I first heard of this idea I thought it was too simple, but actually I think we need to stand up for simplicity. GoodGym is something that is simple that works. The over-complication suffocates so much of social innovation.”

This was reflected in her stories about the volunteers she had met during the 2012 Olympics and how they had connected on a very powerful and human level to being part of something bigger, even if that meant closing their business for a couple of months, or travelling hours each day to volunteer. People make extraordinary sacrifices because they want to, not because they have to;

"The Olympics 2012 volunteering programme was all about being part of something - people can’t be told what to do. We need to change the idea of volunteering being about good people doing good things for people who are subordinate to them. I hate the idea philanthropy. Every GoodGym runner feels different after they've been for a run and spent time with the older person they've had a cuppa with, and that's a huge benefit to them."

To round things off, Ivo who started GoodGym took some time to reflect on everything we had heard and to emphasise the importance of connecting people together both in terms of GoodGym being a success but also communities being a success.

He also announced formally our partnerships for the next three years:

Describing the new partnership with BT he said: “their huge reach, and mission to use the power of communications to make a better world align with our own. We are working together to expand our reach and to mobilise some of their 73,000 strong workforce. The reaction from their staff has been amazing.”

Of the relationship with New Balance he said “GoodGym’s mission is partly about reconnecting volunteering to the rest of our lives and making a more exciting, dynamic form of volunteering that feels aspirational . The two year deal with New Balance will build in their knowledge of and expertise in running to help take GoodGym to the mainstream.”

Of the relationship with parkrun he said "It has been a huge inspiration for GoodGym’s development. The integrity, dedication and focus of what they have achieved is extraordinary. Now numbering at over 2,000,000 runners and 250,000 volunteers it’s achievements are unprecedented in sport or any other field I can think of. Their support in raising awareness of GoodGym and helping us achieve our goals in terms of older people will be game-changing."

Ivo thanked our local authority partners, our amazing referrers such as the Red Cross and AgeUK, and the Big Lottery, Nesta, the London Marathon and the Mayor of London for their support.

Whether it’s through the dedication of runners Becky, Beth and Judy completing 1000 good deeds between them, our coaches Kathleen, Brian and Joy inspiring their runners to get out and be active, or our partners BT, New Balance and parkrun helping us to reach thousands more people across the UK, GoodGym is growing.

Thank you to everyone who helps make this happen. Just like our runners and coaches, GoodGym as a whole, gets by with a little help from our friends.

-Alexander Kenmure

Three of us arrived at Ms J's house in Avonmouth a touch later than planned having had to navigate around the Trump protest demonstration in central Bristol. Our host and her gorgeous little dog, Molly were waiting for us with some Christmas decorations and clothes to be packed away.

Ms J has mobility issues and keeping on top of things must be a challenge at the best of times, but adding in the Christmas paraphernalia and some well-meaning but unwanted cast-offs from friends had resulted in an extensive array of items to sort through.

Mel (on her first mission - well done Mel!) and Deb quickly took the lead; the decorations were tidied up ready for the loft and the clothes were folded and packed away. Both then gently encouraged Ms J in her efforts to pick out some of the unwanted items for charity and recycling so she had a bit more space to work with in future.

Ms J chatted away throughout our time with her, keeping us entertained with stories of her family and a rather touching poem entitled "The Golden Years have come at last" - google it (warning: explicit lyrics).

Having packed away the recycling and rubbish - and vacuumed up after ourselves - we went on our way reassured that Ms J and Molly will now have a bit more space.