30/07/2013 - Permalink

Calling all community event organisers to get involved in Change4Life this summer

Related topics: Community / Health

Hosting an event over the summer holidays?   If so, this is a great opportunity for you to help promote Change4Life’s new Get Going This Summer campaign. 

The campaign, which is being supported by Shropshire Council’s public health team, focuses on getting people physically active during the summer months.  

Children need to do at least 60 minutes a day of physical activity that gets their heart beating faster than usual.  And activity’s not just important for kids – adults should also make sure they’re active for at least 150 minutes a week.  As well as encouraging residents to get more active, the team also want to highlight the importance of minimizing sedentary behaviour, by breaking up long periods of sitting with frequent short breaks, and encourage people to move more and sit less. 

The Get Going This Summer campaign aims to  encourage adults and families (with children 5- to 11-years-old) to sign up to Change4Life online, where they’ll be emailed a personal activity plan along with a series of supportive emails to encourage them to keep active. 

Nearly one million families have signed up to Change4Life for advice, tips and tools to help them eat well, move more and live longer.  The campaigns target is to get 25,000 new sign ups to Change4Life this summer. 

Karen Calder, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for health, said: 

“It can be all too easy to let children spend a bit too much time on the sofa over the summer, but it’s important to make sure that they stay active during the holidays.  The longer days are also the perfect time for adults to join in and give something new a try too. 

“If you are having an event for your local community please help promote the Change4Life ‘Get Going This Summer’ campaign; there are loads of free material you can access to support this and encourage your community to get active this summer.” 

For event organisers, the Change4Life’s new Get Going This Summer programme has everything you need to help your community get active.  Organisers can obtain an event kit (posters, banners, bunting, flags, water bottles, bags) and leaflets to give out to families in their communities to encourage them to sign up to Change4Life.

These materials can be viewed at http://www.orderline.dh.gov.uk/ecom_dh/public/saleproducts.jsf and can be ordered by contacting the Department of Health’s Health and Social Care Publications Orderline on 0300 123 1002.

If you can’t access some of the information you want, contact Public Health England on 0207 972 1665 or email blaise.connolly@phe.gov.uk http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/partners-supporters.aspx or you can call them on 0300 123 3434.

Families can search Change4Life online and can use the online Event Finder tool, which searches activities by type, postcode and radius.  So if you are hosting a Change4Life Get Going this Summer campaign, please advertise your event on the Change4Life website.

To do this you will need to register as a local supporter for Change4Life on their website

Adults and families can join Change4Life and obtain a free personal activity plan by visiting: https://getgoing.change4life.co.uk/Home/Index.

For more information on Change4Life, visit www.nhs.uk/change4life.