See the people
Residents are neighbours, parents, coaches, organisers and problem solvers. They are not a collection of deficits.
Talk to ACE The beginning matters
Born from loss. Built for belonging.
ACE began in Bridgehall and Adswood after lives were lost through suicide and poor mental health. The answer was practical: make it easier for people to move, meet, talk, contribute and feel part of the place around them.
In memory
Tracy Keates
and Shaun Thomson.
Their lives, and the lives of other local people lost too soon, belong at the beginning of the ACE story.
At Tracy’s wake in 2019, Tony Farrar and Steve Cunningham decided that grief and frustration had to become action. Steve’s earlier fundays in Shaun’s honour had already shown how activity could bring a place together.
Read ACE’s original memorial story
Bridgehall + Adswood
The community was never the problem to be fixed.
It already had people, skills, relationships, buildings and a strong instinct to look after its own.
ACE began at Bridge Hall Primary and expanded into the community centre and other local assets. Children came for activity. Parents and carers followed. Youth clubs returned. Sport, cooking, creative sessions, family events and honest conversations began to overlap.
The result was not simply a timetable. People of different ages met one another, became familiar and felt more confident in the neighbourhood. That is the human infrastructure ACE was trying to build.
OPEN THE BUILDINGBACK LOCAL PEOPLEKEEP IT AFFORDABLELET RELATIONSHIPS GROW
Asset Based Community Development
ABCD, in ordinary language.
Start with what is strong, connect it, and give local people the power and practical support to do more with it.
Open the assets
A school after hours, a community room or a pitch can become a dependable part of everyday life.
Build with, not for
Listen in delivery. Let families and participants shape what happens next.
Share the value
Train and employ local people, recycle income and carry community learning into wider systems.
The longer arc
From one doorway to a wider system.
Delivered history, system learning and future ambition are kept distinct.
ACE is founded
A locally rooted response to premature loss, poor mental health and the way conventional services can leave people behind in Bridgehall and Adswood.
Community mobilisation
Affordable activity, online provision during lockdown and a place-based proposition built around residents, local coaches and underused assets.
A membership model takes shape
A £20,000 Community Champions award supports a model intended to grow low-cost membership, local capacity and earned income rather than permanent grant dependence.
Public recognition and a SEND pivot
Regional press records 350 monthly paying members. Parent-led SEND work and community-system relationships open a new test-and-learn chapter.
Local Pilot SLA partner
Following the Bridgehall SEND pilot, ACE becomes an official partner from 2023 to 2025 in the Stockport Local Pilot, funded by Sport England and led by GM Moving. ACE also receives a full £19,365 Short Breaks award.
Scale, inclusion and infrastructure
Mainstream and SEND HAF offers, a further Short Breaks award, SEnclusion development and the SENtathlon venue-learning process extend the model.
Evidence becomes the operating system
Funding feedback is converted into a clearer referral and capability model, a controlled evidence base and practical continuation propositions.
A Stockport-wide movement network
ACE aims to connect universal activity, an inclusive bridge and specialist SEND provision, supported by stronger evidence, commissioning and community assets.
What ACE carries forward
01Belonging comes before performance.
02Fun is evidence that people want to return.
03Inclusion means changing the environment first.
04Evidence must be honest enough to improve the work.
05A neighbourhood should have somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.
The next chapter
Same local instinct. Stronger infrastructure.
Tony Farrar carries forward ACE’s founding purpose, community relationships and policy learning. The ambition now reaches beyond a single postcode while keeping the same starting point: listen locally, use assets well and do not price belonging out of reach.
The future proposition is a Stockport-wide movement network, clearer levels of inclusion, better evidence and longer-term community access to spaces.
Work with ACE
Build the next chapter with ACE.
Bring a place, a group of people, an outcome or an opportunity. ACE will start with what is already strong and work outward from there.
Start a conversation