Tiny steps, big impact

On a lovely sunny day, we gathered at Stephens House and Gardens for a GoodGym Barnet starter session — a relaxed introduction to how GoodGym connects running, volunteering and local community spaces.

The aim of the session was simple: to give newcomers a flavour of what GoodGym does locally, using two great examples of our community activity — Stephens House and Gardens and the nearby Tiny Forest.

Stephens House and Gardens is one of Barnet’s much-loved green spaces, and GoodGym has helped there in many ways over the years, from gardening and planting to supporting the team with practical outdoor jobs. It is a brilliant example of how regular volunteering can help care for local community assets.

After numbering up and introducing ourselves, we had a fun opening chat about encounters with animals while out running. Needless to say, we won’t go into all the details here — but it certainly got everyone smiling.

We then headed off through the park and down towards the Tiny Forest. This is another fantastic local project where GoodGym has been involved, helping with planting, care and citizen science monitoring. At the forest, we carried out some simple measurements linked to carbon capture and biodiversity, using survey slabs to see how the site may be changing over time — including what is happening in the soil as the forest develops.

It was one of those GoodGym sessions that perfectly combined movement, purpose and community: a bit of running, a bit of learning, a bit of science, and plenty of fresh air.

Afterwards, we headed back to Stephens House and Gardens and enjoyed the sunshine at the café with some well-earned food and drinks.

It doesn’t get much better than that.

We’ll be running these starter sessions regularly, so if you’re new to GoodGym Barnet and would like a gentle taster, keep an eye out for the next one. And if you don’t want to wait, come along to one of our Tuesday evening group activities. We’re a welcoming group, we’re not about super fitness, and we always adapt what we do depending on the task and who is with us.