Open Minds Active: Enhancing Access for Muslim Women to Cold Water Swim

Open Minds Active is making waves in the South West of the United Kingdom by improving mental health and wellbeing through cold-water swimming. This social impact organization, led by Maggy Blagrove, aims to widen access to this invigorating activity and create a supportive community where everyone feels comfortable diving into nature.

Maggy is the Founder and Director of Open Minds Active and believes in the power of cold-water swimming as a form of ‘social prescription’ therapy. “It’s described as a more holistic form of therapy because it recognizes that people’s health is determined by a range of social, economic, and environmental factors,” says Maggy.

Maggy Blagrove spoke with Nine To Alive about the success of her organization The Open Mind’s Active as it enters its fourth year.

By working with local GPs, the organization offers a non-clinical alternative to traditional therapies. It works by integrating their cold water swimming efforts with other outdoor organizations like walking and running clubs, this forms a robust outdoor network of support.

The concept of the Open Minds Active emerged in 2020, born from Maggy’s personal journey through grief after the loss of her parents in a short period of time. She discovered that regular open water swimming with friends provided a way to process her emotions and significantly improved her mental health.

Seeing the positive effects on friends dealing with postnatal depression and work-related stress, Maggy noticed a glaring inequity in who had access to outdoor swimming opportunities. She said: “I had a friend who was dealing with postnatal depression and another who was having nervous breakdowns through stress at work… it was really helping them but I started to notice there was a huge inequity with who was accessing the outdoors.”

Since its inception, Open Minds Active has engaged over 1,300 people from Bristol and surrounding areas, using cold-water swimming to strengthen mental health in various ways. Their free six-week program of weekly group swims has been particularly praised, highlighting the effectiveness of cold-water immersion in improving mental health.

“What’s really interesting is, within our research we realized that the social aspect of our clubs is equally as important as the physiological aspects of being submerged in cold water,” Maggy notes.

Despite the initial successes, Maggy and her team identified a significant lack of cultural and racial diversity among their participants. Around this time, she was introduced to Wafa Sulliman, a former Sudanese competitive swimmer and refugee, and worked alongside her to create a Muslim outdoor swim club.

Wafa Sulliman is now the learn to swim manager at the Open’s Mind Active.

Recognizing the need for women-only spaces in Muslim culture, they secured funding and a public pool made private by shutting the blinds to teach Muslim women how to swim.

Maggy said: “We initially started with 12 women of colour, most of whom still swim with us now, but now we have over 200 women of colour who swim with us.

“Over the past three years, it just went crazy.”

Currently they host three sessions of ‘learn to swim’ a week and, being community lead, they allowed Wafa to work with the Sudanese community, while Maggy used her connections in the Somalian communities to drive the organizations awareness.

Their efforts have paid off, with over 50% of their participants now being refugees or asylum seekers, and 33 individuals who were previously non-swimmers now actively participating in their swim sessions.

Four Years On…

As the organization enters it’s four year of continued success, they looked back at disparities they wanted to tackle and developed several key programs. This initiative works closely with the NHS to provide an alternative therapy option, helping to alleviate long waiting lists for depression and anxiety treatments. These issues were:

A learn to swim project for adult women of colour with sessions specifically for refugee and asylum seekers
A social prescribing wild swimming for wellbeing project for people with long term mental and/or physical health conditions.
Spring/Summer inclusive wellbeing activities for community groups in the outdoors including SUP, surfing, hiking, outdoor yoga and movement.
Suite of nature based wellbeing workshops for businesses and local people that empower participants to discover tools to not only support their own mental and physical health long term, but also encourage those around them.

By breaking down cultural barriers and ensuring safety, Open Minds Active continues to promote inclusivity and mental health through their innovative approach to cold-water swimming.

Open Minds Active is a testament to the power of community and the transformative effects of nature. By fostering inclusivity and promoting mental health, they are making a lasting impact in the South West and allowing the benefits of cold water swimming to be accessed by all cultures.

Maggy said: “It’s such a fantastic community of women helping women, that now the husbands are asking where they can join in!”

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