Haringey Cycle Gateway is a project run voluntarily by a few members of staff at the Canning Crescent Mental Health Service in Haringey.
The project offers service users with significant mental health problems an opportunity to choose a second hand bike from their ever growing scrap yard, sourced through donations and from council tips. Users then refurbish the bikes with the support of professional bike mechanics.Once the bikes are road worthy the users get some basic cycle training and are encouraged to get on the road. The project organises regular group rides that the users can join, even before their bike is ready.The project also has a pool of bikes they lend to users for free.
Choosing their bike and working on it means that by the time it is ready to be ridden users have developed a commitment to it and are enthusiastic about cycling. This willingness is then cemented by the safety training and the group rides. The project has had a very positive impact on the health of the users, who have also engaged their friends and families in the project. A number of users have since shown interest in doing further courses and possibly pursuing careers in bike maintenance.
The CCFL grant was essential in developing the project, which was able to grow and become more efficient and sustainable thanks to a set of professional tools, a pool of bikes and new storage facilities for the workshop.