: Thursday 24 Jan 2008 13:33:45

Urbanwalks is a vehicle to get communities moving again. The aim of Urbanwalks is to get more people, more active, more often through walking.

The urban walks leaflets are designed to offer habitual opportunities for localised walking, the leaflets allows individuals to have the choice of tailor-made short walks using a generic template that enable the user to meet the current physical activity recommendations of 5 x 30 minutes a week. Urbanwalks can act as a one-stop-shop and deliver everything from the finding of the routes to mapping, risk assessing, design and print or alternatively we could work with community groups and get the community involved with the mapping and finding of the routes process, which would allow them to take ownership.

At Urbanwalks we believe that our products and services can easily work along side any existing walking projects, we are simply the first step to getting active, especially for those who are currently sedentary.

We can produce urban walking routes in any community setting, which could include everyday journeys to any of the following for example: school, shops, health centres, banks or the library and for any population group e.g. older people, ethnic minorities, or young people. We could also utilise existing Health Walks or provide new routes in addition to the ones that are already available.

Urbanwalks can also produce leaflets under the headings of Active Travel, which aims to encourage people to use walking as part of their everyday journeys and Green Space Walks, which use parks and urban green spaces.

Urbanwalks design and risk assess routes that are safe for independent walking, which allows the community to use them on a daily basis on their own or with friends and family allowing them to achieve their 5 x 30 minutes of physical activity a week.

The Urbanwalks concept could also link into other projects such as health at work, active travel plans, exercise referral and the health walks.

Justine Dingwall
Managing Director
Urbanwalks
www.urbanwalks.co.uk
T: 0870 242 7507

: Thursday 24 Jan 2008 13:24:33

There should be some useful ideas in our report, which can be accessed at http://domain1745293.sites.thomascole.net/downloads/8113837696795145024012008132231.pdf.

Getting hard-to-reach groups to exercise requires persistence, but the ALFA team in Barrow has provided opportunities and encouragement. It will give you an idea of the range of activities possible.

Good luck

Richard Scott
Walking the Way To Health Co-ordinator
Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service

: Thursday 24 Jan 2008 13:04:57

I work in a New Deal for Communities area in Oldham and mange a physical activity project, initially to support adult residents to increase their physical activity levels although now I do also have a remit for under 16s provision too.

I started a year ago and the first thing I did was a 'physical activity audit' of the area - as physical activity levels are so low (8% of residents meet the 3 x 30 mins) it was easy to assume that there was nothing to do here, but actually when I started on the audit it was interesting to find there was quite a lot going on - residents just didn't know anything about it!!!

The audit looked at the existing activities, facilities and venues (where activities were taking place or could take place, even church halls etc.), I also visited and spoke to all the instructors/ clubs in the area and held a meeting to bring them all together to introduce myself. Since then I've been working to raise awareness of what exists locally (- have attached the NDC Physical Activity Directory which I produced recently).

I also work with the PCT and leisure trust and have encouraged them to deliver more activities in the area (e.g. new weekly activities , 2 x chair based exercise classes, and new womens keep fit class aswell as providing free swim vouchers for residents).

From the audit, I spoke to quite a few residents and produced a questionnaire - from the results I was able to determine what the barriers to participation are in this area which included Childcare issues, Cost, Lack of awareness of what exists, Not having anyone to participate with, and others and so that has been my main focus of work really.

I have also had a database designed to collect resident's details, I am trying to use social marketing - sending out info that is relevant to that individual, and using this has been invaluable as 'word of mouth' seems to work very well here in promoting things and so residents do pass on info to each other and turn up to advertised activities!

All of this has coincided with the opening of our new community centre, so a lot of my efforts have been concentrated there.

I am also looking to fund training for local residents to skill them to deliver activities and become instructors in their local community - one of my main aims is sustainability as the programme will only run until March 2011.

Hope all of this makes sense! I'm more than happy to have a chat with you or if you want to visit you would be more than welcome.

Any questions, please ask!

You can also access our directory at http://domain1745293.sites.thomascole.net/downloads/8113837696795145024012008130216.pdf

Best wishes

Angela Matthews
NDC Physical Activity Project Co-ordinator
New Deal for Communities - Fitton Hill and Hathershaw,
Tel: 0161 785 9716/ 3773
Mob: 07931 890 404