The Good Gym helps people who exercise or who want to get fit to channel their energy towards social good.

Founded in September 2007, The Good Gym has been developed in consultation with fitness enthusiasts, older people and third sector organisations. The Good Gym aims to help community and public sector organisations, charities and individuals by supporting their services in small ways.

The focus for the 2008 pilot project is to develop a supplementary visit and delivery service for elderly immobile people. In this case runners will be paired with elderly immobile people in their area and visit them on a weekly basis providing a useful extra item such as a newspaper and some regular human contact.

The Good Gym aims to develop a new model of voluntary action by focusing on the positive experience of the volunteer. It is hoped that this approach will result in a higher number of volunteers. The model aims to make it as easy as possible for people to integrate voluntary participation into their lives.

The Good Gym is supported by Thinkpublic and has been given seed funding from Unltd*.