Active Londoners funds extension of Physical Activity Southall – A hyper local approach to promoting physical activity

SADIQ KHAN WANTS LONDON TO BE THE MOST ACTIVE AND SOCIALLY-INTEGRATED CITY IN THE WORLD. TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL, THE MAYOR LAUNCHED SPORT UNITES, HIS MULTI-MILLION POUND FLAGSHIP COMMUNITY SPORTS PROGRAMME IN MARCH 2018.

GETTING LONDONDERS ACTIVE AND ENGAGED

 As part of Sport Unites, he has created the Active Londoners Fund. This will make funding available to people and organisations who use sport and other kinds of physical activity to get Londoners up and about and moving more, leading to happier, healthier lives, either on their own, or with other people. 

Active Londoners is one of the main ‘themes’ of Sport Unites, and one of the programme’s major funds. The main aim of the Active Londoners fund is to get more people in London participating, more often, in a wider range of sport and physical activity. Active Londoners has a particular focus on supporting projects that will benefit ‘inactive’ people, improving their physical health and mental wellbeing by encouraging and enabling them simply to get active. 

As part of the programme, Active Londoners have funded the extension and mainstreaming of Physical Activity Southall, a hyper local approach to promoting physical activity in Catalyst neighbourhoods.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS

The project will build upon the success of the pilot run by Catalyst Housing and Ealing Council across the Havelock estate. Elemental will once again support the initiative by embedding our digital social prescribing programme into a wider social prescribing model in Southall, working with local residents and GP practices to map community assets, and collaborating with local service providers to increase their capacity and number of referrals. 

Catalyst Housing and Ealing Council will be able to identify gaps with the aim of commissioning physical activities based upon need. Through the Elemental platform, community teams can then raise and manage referrals, track individual health journeys utilising tools such as BMI and SWEMWEBS and have the ability to measure and evaluate participation and impact of the project. The addition of Elemental’s Self Refer module will also provide residents with the option to self refer into the programme through kiosks placed around the community.

THE AIMS OF THE PROJECT

•  Get the people of Southall more physically active
•  Have a positive impact on resident health through physical activity
•  Build a resilient community with all stakeholders as equal partners to ensure sustainability

’“We are delighted to have been successful in our application to Active Londoners to fund a Community Link worker for our social prescribing project in Southall.  Building on the success of our pilot project with Elemental on the Havelock estate, our aim is to engage more people living in Southall to access physical activity opportunities near where they live.  We will be working with residents and local GP practices to map and assess all places to become physically active as well as with community providers delivering physical activity to build their capacity to receive increased referrals to their services via the social prescribing platform.” Nicola Wheeler, Neighbourhood Coordinator, Catalyst Housing

EXCITED FOR THE FUTURE AHEAD

Jennifer Neff, Elemental Co-founder and Co CEO said “We are delighted the Physical Activity in Southall project has been funded by Active Londonders as we felt we successfully co-produced the foundations for a new way of working in the community with Catalyst Housing and Ealing Council. We’re delighted that the pilot produced a range of insights and has helped to inform the implementation of social prescribing in Ealing, and potentially provided a trailblazer for the roll out of a Primary Care Network in Southall, everything in this project resonates with the key themes from the Mayor’s Sport Strategy. We can’t wait to work with the team at Catalyst and Ealing again, and we’re excited about the impacts and outcomes that are yet to come.”