What is good for our physical health, decreases our risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer & dementia? Has powerful impacts on our mental health and wellbeing, reduces depression and stress and helps improve our mood. It improves our muscle strength, helps control our weight, boosts our endurance, improves our sleep, helps improve our balance and increases our overall energy levels.
If you haven't guessed it already it is exercise, physical activity, movement. Whatever you prefer to call it, it is when we use energy to move our bodies in any way shape or form. It is when we aren’t being couch potatoes and instead are activated broccolis.
If we were told there was a ‘superfood’ or a certain product or pill that could provide us with all those health benefits we would all be running…no pun intended to purchase it, yet the majority of us have this ‘superpower’ available to us and for free and yet lots of us are living sedentary lives and aren’t doing enough physical activity to reap the benefits.
I have recently started working on a new project at Salford CVS based in Broughton and the immediate surrounding area which is all about movement and physical activity levels and working with communities to find out and understand what is stopping people in these areas from living active lives and what would encourage them to move their bodies more.
Before I scare anyone off, when I say active lives I don’t mean training for marathons or getting up at 5am everyday to complete a 30 minute high intensity workout, it is just about moving our bodies more often and incorporating movement into our daily lives. Moving in ways which we enjoy and which won’t seem like another bullet point on our long list of things to do. Living an active life could look like us walking to places more, it could be taking the time to dance with family and friends, it could be volunteering at local community gardens or litter pick groups, it could be doing more DIY for ourselves and those who need help. physical games in educational settings, bricklaying, desk stretches in offices – anything where we are moving our bodies more, for at least 30 minutes a day.
We know that modern lives are busy lives and there is likely to be a variety of barriers stopping people from living active lives including things like childcare responsibilities, not having the types of activities people want in the local area, lack of transport, low self esteem & confidence, not knowing how to find out what activities are available in the area; etc. But we want to find out from communities themselves what these barriers are.
As well as understanding the barriers we want to know from community groups and communities what would encourage people to move their bodies more. Maybe the people you work with are really busy and all they can make time for is ESOL classes – could these sessions be delivered in a physical way, could classes be focused on walking around the local area to help people to learn about their new homes or perhaps people want evening and weekend activities or parents want some sort of physical activity available whilst they wait for their children to complete their swimming lessons, maybe it is about funding more women and men only classes; etc.
I could sit at my desk and try and think what the barriers are people face and create some ideas that could potentially help with physical activity levels but instead I want to support the VCSE sector, who no doubt already understand what is stopping people from living active lives due to the strong relationships they have with their communities. As a VCSE group or member of your community you are also likely to have ideas on what would help get more people moving their bodies more.
Currently I am making time to go and visit groups in Broughton to get a strong understanding of the barriers and ideas as this will help me to create a grants programme that accurately fits the desires of the local community. To do this I have created a short survey which will help to get a wider range of voices and opinions as I admit I probably won’t be able to get out to all the groups in Broughton and the surrounding areas. The survey will take less than five minutes to complete and I would be very grateful if you could complete it. By completing the survey you are helping to shape the future grants programme and guidance and by doing so are influencing what future activities and services will be funded in the local area. This insight will help ensure that funded projects are something that the local community want and need!
So regardless of what you do (it could be you deliver Arts & Crafts sessions) and who you work with (children, older people, people with disabilities; etc) I want to hear from you about the barriers and the ideas you have on how you think we can get the people in Broughton and surrounding areas living more active lives. You might have an idea you have wanted to try for a while or maybe you have an idea that someone else could deliver, again either way I would love to hear your thoughts.
Please find a link here to the survey here.
Here is the exciting part, if you already have an idea you would like to try then you might like to hear about to the new small grants we are about to launch which will be available for VCSE groups to pilot new ideas, projects or services. We will be offering small grants of up to £750 for groups to test out ideas. These grants won’t follow our usual traditional grants process and instead I am encouraging any groups with ideas to contact me initially for a chat, if it sounds like a fit then you will be sent a simple application form to complete.
If you would like to have a chat about an idea you have or you would like to find out more about my work on this project then please contact me, Email: ashley.chapman@salfordcvs.co.uk Tel: 07421 125 355 or 0161 787 7795.
Please note I do not work on Wednesdays.
This project is a partnership with Salford Community Leisure, I am working with Ben Povey on this project so as well as the opportunity for funding and development support there is also the opportunity to link in with and receive support from SCL. If this is something you might be interested in or would like to find out more about then please get in touch and I can introduce you to Ben.
I look forward to hearing your ideas!