Our Strategy
City Works, Alfred Street, Gloucester, United Kingdom, GL1 4DF
Introduction
Active Gloucestershire has become a support organisation for we can move. Our role is to Inspire, Connect and Enable so that we can support we can move to grow and have impact.
Background
During the last strategy period (2017 to 2021), Active Gloucestershire identified the need for a step change in our approach. In the past, most health campaigns tended to make already active people slightly more active, leaving inactive people further behind. We established we can move as a social movement with a mission to increase activity rates among everyone in Gloucestershire, not only those who were already active.
To do this we’ve tested some behaviour change approaches and have shared our learning whilst working with partners to make changes in the physical activity system. In some cases system change has been accelerated as result of Covid-19.
As a result, we’ve seen a slow but consistent growth in the we can move movement and are now reaching and supporting more people across the county. We can move is increasingly embedded in the county’s policies affecting the way we live our lives
Need
There is still more to do. In order to have significant impact we can move needs to grow, and we must continue to share learning across our networks. More system change will enable us to create a culture of daily physical activity. It’s the single biggest change that can be made to improve a person’s health. The health inequalities in our county are still all too clear. More work is needed to ensure that ethnicity, age, income, gender and where we live has no impact on our health.
At Active Gloucestershire, our strategy will broaden and increase we can move’s impact working differently to develop rusted relationships with organisations, communities and residents who have the most to gain from being more active. This includes young people, minority ethnic groups, and people with long-term health conditions. The Covid-19 crisis has taught us that we will need to continue to be flexible and responsive. At the same time, we’ll continue to share our learning and to learn from others in the county.
Our Ambition
We want to get more people moving and halve inactivity rates in Gloucestershire by 2030
Our Vision
Everyone in Gloucestershire living healthy and happy lives
Our Mission
We’re part of an inclusive community that connects and inspires people in Gloucestershire to improve their lives through physical activity
Our Role
Active Gloucestershire is the backbone organisation for we can move. Our purpose is to enable we can move to achieve its mission by enabling collaboration, and by providing resources and support.
Our Priorities
To achieve we can move’s vision we have identified the following ways of priorities. They focus on the areas we believe are the most important and are where we have the skills, funding and expertise to make a difference.
1. Proactively working with marginalised and under-represented people such as those from Black & Asian or minority ethnic groups is crucial
We know that people from these groups are less likely to be active bu we’ve seen how people can take meaningful and lasting changes in their communities to support each other to be active
2. Young people are the key to a lifetime of good health.
Starting active habits at a young age and sustaining them throughout life will result in more people living a happier, healthier and more prosperous life.
3. Older people can enjoy good heath for longer by starting or maintaining an active lifestyle.
Being active enables older people to make the most of their independence for longer. Sport and physical activity isn’t just enjoyable – it also helps older people to maintain strength, physical condition and to improve their mental health.
4. Disability or a health condition shouldn’t stop anyone from enjoying an active life.
Disabled people and those with health conditions really stand to benefit from being more active. Sport and physical activity is fun, promoting physical and mental health. It also creates opportunities to connect with others and share experiences.
5. Active design, facilities and travel all play an essential role in enabling everyone to become and stay active.
The places we live, work and play should provide people with opportunities to be more active. Taking an active environments approach to facilities and travel limits carbon emissions and our impact on the environment generally.
6. We must remain flexible to respond to external challenges and opportunities.
Covid-19 has demonstrated that we need to respond to external opportunities and challenges whenever these arise, so we’ll formally review our strategy every year.
Inspire
United behind a common vision, mission values and behaviours.
Guide a collective strategy.
Run and promote campaigns that inspire people to be active.
Facilitate collective advocacy for county policies that promote physical activity.
Connect
Help organisations and people to understand the system they are operating in and how we all need to work together to bring about change.
Facilitate networks and opportunities to bring people together to support each other, collaborate and share good
practice.Encourage alignment of activities and shared measures that help us all see the difference we are collectively making.
Enable
Provide key data, statistics and facts, identify need and share good practice.
Turn ideas into reality by increasing investment in our sector and county and providing guidance and resources to secure funding/income.
Provide training, workshops and consultancy which stimulate debate and provide skills/ideas on how to get people active.
Approach 1: Movement building
Active Gloucestershire will support we can move to grow, enabling members of the movement to work together. Supporting growth will allow we can move to have an impact on more people in our county, especially those from under-represented groups.
To achieve this, we will focus on the following areas:
• Marketing and communication.
• Influencing policy and supporting organisations to implement it, including public affairs.
• Building relationships to include clubs, professionals, community organisations and community leaders.
• Supporting we can move champions to undertake a role in decision-making, including on our board.
• Promoting equality and welcoming people from underrepresented groups.
• Supporting people and organisations to access funding advice to secure resources.
• Become systems leaders to build momentum and support for we can move.
Approach 2: Knowledge, learning and understanding
To increase the impact of we can move, we’ll continue to develop a culture of shared knowledge, learning and understanding. By learning collectively, we’ll be better placed to adapt to changing priorities and to support more people to be active.
We aim to achieve this by focusing on the following areas:
• Systems mapping so that we can understand physical activity systems, including interdependencies, whilst measuring impact and prioritising new projects.
• Evaluation so that we can continue to improve and adjust to external influences, allowing our approach to evolve as we learn.
• Our Changemaker programme will support our networks to up-skill as well as share knowledge.
• Exploring national and international approaches that might work in our county and by working in partnership with our funders.
Approach 3: Evidence-based approaches to community development and behaviour change
We aim to develop our learning by using evidence-based approaches to asset-based community development and behaviour change.
To achieve this, we’ll focus on the following areas:
• The use of behaviour change theory and practice to increase impact of new and existing projects.
• Sharing our learning with local and national partners.
• Using Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and place-based approaches to help communities develop their own projects.
• Become systems leaders to build momentum and support for we can move.
Approach 4: Creating a sustainable organisation
We aim to ensure that we have the resources available to undertake our work. This includes maintaining a diverse mix of income from grants, trusts, sponsorship and earned income.
We have three priorities:
Priority 1:
Priority partners (Sport England, CCG & GCC etc.)
Working closely with our main funding partners who understand and support our work so that we can continue to secure the resources needed.
Priority 2:
Income diversity
Balancing income to allow us to deliver our priorities whilst sharing our learning and having a greater impact on the physical activity system. A diverse income will ensure that we can undertake our work if we are unable to continue to secure investment from a single funder.
Priority 3:
Increasing earned income
Increasing our earned income so we can invest in priority areas for which we haven’t been able to secure a funder. Our work in social investment also provides a positive social impact whilst at the same time providing unrestricted earnings.
Impact
Sharing the positive impact of we can move doesn’t just motivate us as an organisation. It also allows us to make the case for more funding, enabling us to understand the benefits that physical activity can bring to people’s lives.
We will do this by:
- Understanding and monitoring how many people are getting active and why.
- Sharing stories of how being active has changed lives.
- Understanding the impact of our work across partners, organisations and people.
- Evaluating projects to understand, learn about, and help measure the impact and value of our work.
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Our Policies
Our policies set out our commitment, responsibility and approach at Active Gloucestershire.
we can move
Physical activity can have a transformative impact on the lives of people, including their health and wellbeing.
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The latest updates and news articles from the Active Gloucestershire team
