Community benefit society Leisure in the Community (LITC) and 1Life Leisure Management Solutions (1Life) have agreed to go their separate ways after a long-standing 20-year partnership.

During that time LITC and 1Life worked together delivering community leisure facilities and services across eleven local authority partners, including Brent Council, Central Bedfordshire Council, South Holland District Council and Worcester City Council. They also managed 29 leisure and cultural activities, along with sports and arts development services.

As LITC is a non-profit and community benefit society, it can’t distribute profits to shareholders, so any surplus funds are reinvested back into the business. Grants of more than £360,000 have been awarded to partner organisations over the last decade.

Given the range of projects covered since 2002, cash reserves and tax advantages of being a community benefit society, owner and director of LITC, Chris Reeves, believes that the non-profit can now go on to offer opportunities to tether new partners.

The purpose of a community benefit society is to serve the broader interests of society. Many of LITC’s past projects have been focused around getting local people to improve their health and enjoyment of physical activity.

For example, the My Sporting Chance programme, a collaboration with Durham County Council and primary schools addressed obesity and ran over a four-year period helping 250 families. Results showed that the majority of participants experienced health improvement by the end.

The Get Active Stay Active scheme with Central Bedfordshire Council, focused on physical activity and delivered exercise and dance programmes to more than 4,500 older, more inactive, residents, including those in care homes.

Community benefit societies can only exist for the purposes of carrying on an industry, business or trade, so LITC is now looking for new partners.