Mytime Active at 20: Our CEO's Vision for Community Wellbeing and Leisure Innovation

Jason Stanton, CEO, Mytime Active, joined the charitable leisure trust eight years ago, fondly referring to himself as the ‘Golf Guy’, as he was brought in to manage the company’s golf estate.

As Mytime Active celebrates its 20th anniversary, Jason shares his thoughts on how he intends to continuously improve Mytime Active’s offer to its community and what the future of leisure holds.

Jason says:

“My original focus when I joined Mytime Active was to prove that using our golf estate, whether that was to play golf, participate in another activity or just attending for a social event, could improve a person’s wellbeing. We successfully partnered with England Golf and ukactive to conceive and subsequently launch Golf on Referral, the first ever research backed, medically proven GP referral pathway for golf. We were very proud that this pioneering piece of research was formally recognised, winning England Golf’s 2019 Innovation Award.

“Now, across all our facilities and activities, we are starting to evaluate our programmes for improved wellbeing, so they become evidential. We measure the wellbeing impact of our services via the Office of National Statistics, looking at the personal wellbeing factor of residents and then aspiring to make it significantly higher for our members. We began this approach in April 2022, as an integral element of our new strategy. Our initial results show that our members have up to a 13% higher wellbeing factor than residents. The team are exceptionally proud of that.

“As an integral part of Mission Wellbeing we developed ‘Theory of Change’, our pathway to drive the improved wellbeing of our members. It’s all linked around four key pathways; Eat Well, Be Together, Be Positive and Be Active. For instance, if 10-year-old Johnny attends swimming lessons, he’s Being Active. When he comes out hungry, we want to offer him a healthy food option so he can Eat Well. Be Positive is how we reward and acknowledge his swimming achievements and Be Together is the friends he makes during his lessons and the opportunities we provide to reinforce those friendships, such as a free swim during the holidays so he can go with his friends.”

Jason explains: “We don’t just want a transactional relationship with our community. We want our customers to get more from us than, for example, just using the gym. A leisure centre should be a community hub. I don’t mind whether people workout, play dominoes or buy a coffee – at one of our golf clubs we even have a knit and natter group!”

Just because Jason’s the Chief Executive, doesn’t mean he has a hands-off approach. Jason often pops into groups and activities, incognito. He recently joined a Primetime Dementia-Friendly Strength and Stability class at Crofton Hall. At the end of the class participants were told he was the CEO and were pleased he had come along, telling him how much they enjoyed the classes. A Primetime Buddy also told him there was a leak under the sink, and the next thing the CEO was on his hands and knees with his head under the sink taking a look and using his best plumbing skills to resolve the issue!