The new 'BRIDGING THE GAP INITIATIVE'

The ARNI Trust has developed the BRIDGING THE GAP INITIATIVE for stroke survivors after physiotherapy to facilitate the efforts of stroke survivors who want to train to cope with life again.

After returning from rehabilitation hospitals, or having finished with the help of physiotherapists, they quickly realise that they must get out and rehabilitate themselves in a local gym or health centre, otherwise they will simply regress at home. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, many reasons (real and imaginary) stop them from making this change. They often cite the feeling that gyms or other training areas are daunting places for stroke survivors to go on their own... and that they believe they may not be treated well. Many just cannot figure out how to help themselves, and cannot find available resources. Stroke survivors also cannot travel very far for the type of regular help they need.

TO TACKLE THIS DEMAND, THE ARNI TRUST IS NOW TRAINING HIGHLY ABLE PT INSTRUCTORS AROUND THE UK, AND SENDING STROKE SURVIVORS TO THEM FOR A ONE HOUR GROUP CLASS (OR MORE) PER WEEK.

We are offering the comprehensive ARNI TRUST TRIPARTITE CERTIFICATION to highly qualified Physical Trainers (PT).

The pre-requisite is that Instructors must have attained the ‘gold- standard' to be a recognised PT trainer – a Level 3 of REPs (Register of Exercise Professionals) is a standard requirement BUT does not exclude exceptional physical trainers with track records of working with diverse populations. If you are unsure whether this includes YOUor not, email ARNI for advice.

Most of our Instructors own their own physical fitness business or even their own Centre in their local area.

They will also have demonstrated, via their CV's, prior interest in helping special populations, conducting sports rehab, work with the infirm and and even exposure to the particular training requirements of stroke survivors.

Note for potential Instructors

The certification is FREE (although we ask for a small donation to cover costs per seminar). It is a training syllabus especially designed so that along with the things you do anyway, you can now devote no more than an hour per week to working with a group of people, each of whom will have had some kind of stroke, leading to limited movement ability. There will be a maximum of 6/7 in a group. We will introduce you to the concept of training stroke survivors via a succession of seminars, and bring in existing stroke survivors so that you can understand better the needs of this cohort. Training in specific techniques is then given in 2 to 3 seminars initally, plus one to one (or two Instructors) teaching, as you involve yourself with an existing class, so that we can make sure that you come away with the knowledge and confidence to work with the patients. You will also need to do some home learning.

This certification basically equips you with the techniques we have developed over 10 years of training stroke survivors.

We teach practical, real-life skills (developed by the Director to achieve mastery over the limitations of residual paralysis) to enable you to teach stroke survivors to move more easily, and develop strength, balance and confidence.

It is an excellent chance to get involved with a rehabilitation charity to help others and for your own personal professional development!

You can help, AND EARN £5 TO £10 PER PERSON IN A GROUP CLASS. Even though we are a charity it doesn't mean that you would be doing unpaid work. It is hard to attract as many volunteers as necessary around the UK, so we are falling in line with many charities, and asking stroke survivors to pay a very small (nominal) fee for your professional training, availablity to help, and costs every week. We regard the fact we are able to refer needy peopleto you in your area as the best benefit of this approach.

I am pleased to say that this Initiative has been very successful so far! We have had 8 seminars, which received such good feedback that most who have attended (20 people in each) have signed up to be an Instructor, and are coming to see me in twos and threes each week when I run my own session with stroke survivors from my community. Please click on the below buttons to find out what some Instructors who have been through the course think. Feel free to contact them independently at their own clubs or businesses about ARNI.

Once you receive the ARNI Trust Tripartite certification (which must be renewed via attendance at PD seminars each year, where instructor performance is reviewed) you can then receive referrals from ARNI Trust Central, and be given regular newspaper proformas in order to adapt for newspaper coverage in their local areas. We give you flyers and posters – and links on our website. The ARNI Trust's role therefore is also to publicise itself in order to attract stroke survivors, whilst at the same maintaining the growth of numbers (and learning development) of Instructors that can be made available to the public.

We will be putting up online individual Instructors' details very shortly - please bear with us.