St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation has awarded Gympanzees a special grant of £250,000 towards our permanent centre, giving us a significant boost as we move closer to opening our doors in Spring 2027.

The award comes as part of the Foundation’s celebrations to mark £150 million raised for charities since St. James’s Place launched in 1992. We’re incredibly proud that Gympanzees has been chosen to receive this special support as part of such an important milestone.

This isn’t the first time the Foundation has backed our vision. They are already one of our valued Room Partners, funding the build and fit-out of the Music Room in our permanent centre.

This new £250,000 award takes that support even further and comes at a crucial time for Gympanzees. We’ve already raised £8.9 million towards our £11.5 million target, and construction is well underway. But we still need to raise more to ensure we can complete the centre and open our doors in Spring 2027.

Once open, Gympanzees will be the UK’s first fully inclusive exercise, play and social centre for disabled children and young people and their families. An estimated 100,000 disabled children are living within an hour of Bristol and 1.7 million across the UK, yet 77% of disabled children are unable to access leisure facilities regularly.

Stephanie Wheen, CEO and Founder of Gympanzees, said:

“We’re deeply grateful to the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation for its £250,000 gift towards our new permanent centre. This support will help us bring to life our fully accessible centre where disabled children and young people can exercise, play, build confidence and form friendships in spaces designed around them from the start.

Families will be able to enjoy time together without the physical, sensory and social barriers they so often face elsewhere. The centre will include specialist exercise equipment, soft play, trampolines, sensory rooms, a music room, accessible outdoor play, social spaces and three Changing Places facilities.

It will give children and young people desperately needed opportunities to move, explore and connect, and they and their families will become part of our welcoming community.

The St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation has been foundational in helping to create something that will make a lasting difference to disabled children, young people and families for many years to come.”

Anna, a Gympanzees parent, said:

“In a world that feels increasingly inaccessible to my son, having somewhere like Gympanzees means more than I can put into words. So often, I have to think about whether somewhere will work for him before we can even think about whether he’ll enjoy it.

Gympanzees changes that. It gives my son somewhere he can have fun, make friends and just be himself, without the barriers he faces in so many other places. Knowing that will soon be there all year round will be life-changing for him, and for so many other children and young people. Not just now but for years to come”

This £250,000 award from St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation will help make that future possible. It is about more than completing a building. It is about creating a place where disabled children, young people and their families know they belong.

Thank you to everyone at St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation for continuing to believe in what we’re building and for choosing Gympanzees to be part of this very special £150 million milestone.