Pedal People charity awarded the MBE

The Kings Award for Voluntary Service is awarded for life and the highest a UK volunteer-led group can receive.

About us

We provide piloted cycle rides aboard specialist accessible, multi-seat trikes - so people who have no or little access to outdoor activity can cycle out weekly for health and wellbeing benefits.

Cycle adventures of 5-25Km per ride across green and blue spaces make our rides exceptional and effective. Participants report improved physical and mental health, community connection and reduced loneliness. For over 80% it is their ONLY outdoor activity. We serve 50km Brighton radius.

Our rides are invigorating, fun, uplifting, exhilarating, healthy and (often only) outdoor activity. All return buzzing. People really notice the fabulous, visible cycles and interact positively.

We run 2 different services, open 12 months a year:

1.  Elders in care: Weekly schedule, piloted by our team of trained Volunteer Cycle-Pilots. We collect and return participants to their care home by trike.

2.  All-Ages: Train carers/friends/family to cycle-pilot enabling (often for first time) riding together. These operate from our UK-flagship seafront base: For these rides we uniquely train carers, friends, family to cycle-pilot. Enabling them to cycle up to 25Km across their community. Variety of pedal/ non-pedal/ electric-assist multi-seat trikes available. Cycle out together aboard the same trike. Anyone with a disability or health challenge can book a ride direct via our website. Adaptable, accessible, with seat belt, swivel-out seats, arm rests. Easy-onboarding, wheelchair transfer, suitable for complex needs and hoist available. 

Both our ride services are highly subsidised through our charitable fundraising, for low-cost [or no-cost as needed].

Why we are blazing a trail and why it matters

Unique attributes:

• Run both an Elder Care Ride Service plus an 'All-Ages Ride Service' for elders or anyone of any age living with a health challenge or disability.

• Consistent minimum 50% Women Cycle Pilot Volunteers, Participant Advisory Panel, Staff and Charity Board*.

• We actively pursue giving inclusive and high quality training and communications; in person, on rides, online to encourage ‘See it to be it’. By this we mean - when people see others like themselves/who they can relate to accessing, benefiting from and providing cycle rides they are actively encouraged to join in.

• Open year-round.

*Women are under-represented in cycling & cycle organisations. Women cycle half as often as men.  {Sustrans & Cycling UK 2022}

Women make up 51% of the population and 59% of unpaid carers (there are higher numbers of unpaid carers in deprived areas . Women are far more likely to care earlier and have a 50:50 chance of doing so by the time they are 46, men have the same likelihood but from 57 years old - 11 years later. (Carers UK 2023).

Why it matters

Over 80% of our participants across both our services report our cycle rides as their ONLY outdoor activity. Many spend the rest of their day inside, in a chair or bed, that’s around 22 hours of their days. We set out to offer and highlight the wider accessible possibilities. A UK-Flagship example of the first accessible cycle charity to have a seafront and city-centre ride offering.

Initially when trying to locate our ride base we were only offered out-of-town on unused land. We knew that wasn’t the accesible, community-centric, visible inclusion needed, so we worked to gain full cross-political-party support for a visible, community-centred ride base and successfully negotiated Brighton & Hove City Council to help us site the base centrally and beach-side. They gave an exceptional grant towards our base in 2021 to show that support. We are an independent small local charity and rely on raising all our own funds, that grant helped us purchase 2 sea containers that are now our All-Ages Ride Base.

As a densely populated city, home to deprived communities and with 1 in 20 people report a disability, we know there is high need in Brighton- highlighted by our frequent waitlist.

Beneficaries

-       50km Brighton radius

-      Elders living in/with care, who rarely or never go outside

-       People of any age living with disability or health challenges

-       Carers (and family members) of people living with disabilites or health challenges