Ramblers and Action for Children get Furness families walking
Researchers from Oxford and Loughborough universities found Ramblers' Furness Families Walk4Life pilot project was successful in benefiting families with young children, a target audience other walking projects have found difficult to reach.
The project, funded by the Department of Health as part of their Change4Life initiative, took place over summer 2009 at children's centres run by partner charity Action for Children. Centres hosted 12-week programmes aimed at getting families to walk together as part of everyday life using a combination of short led walks on specially prepared routes and child-friendly materials.
We’re now looking at ways to roll the scheme out more widely. To find out more, including the full research report and a short film about how the project benefited one young mum, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/walkingfurness.
Get Walking Keep Walking hits halfway point
Get Walking Keep Walking is now halfway through its Lottery funding and on course to help almost 90,000 people improve their health and well-being through everyday walking.
The Get Walking teams in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Sheffield, supported by local volunteer Walking Ambassadors and celebrities like This Morning’s Dr Chris Steele, have been busy distributing Get Walking Packs – a unique collection of free support materials including a 12-week walking plan, step counter and logbook. 600 people signed up in one day at Cheetham Hill Tesco in Manchester, while the South London team gave out 750 in one day at Lewisham Shopping Centre.
There’s a great new website to help promote the packs which also includes downloadable short walks from our local centres.
Hundreds of people are now volunteering as walk leaders, walking ambassadors and route developers and checkers. Many of them haven’t volunteered for the Ramblers before. To find out more, see www.getwalking.org.uk, or for background information see under www.ramblers.org.uk/walking/projects/england.
All set for Get Walking Day – 23 May
Get Walking Day is an opportunity for thousands of people across England, Scotland and Wales to celebrate walking and raise awareness of its benefits by enjoying a walk with the Ramblers. This year’s event, in the midst of our 75th birthday celebrations, is even more special.
Your Area or Group can help by organising a walk either on the day or the preceding Saturday. The focus will remain on shorter walks (as short as you like but no more than 8km/5 miles), preferably starting from town centres or transport hubs, as these walks are proven more likely to attract new people.
Meanwhile the 75th Anniversary Baton Walks got off to a great start on New Year’s Eve in Cornwall. Over 40 walkers of all ages strolled to the giant megalith at Trencrom for mulled wine, soup and mince pies. The baton is travelling around Cornwall in January, before being handed over to Devon in February.
For more about how to participate in Get Walking Day see http://www.ramblers.org.uk/Volunteer/News/Get-walking-day
For more about participating in the 75th Anniversary, see
http://www.ramblers.org.uk/Volunteer/News/75th+Anniversary.htm
See also the 75th Anniversary website at www.ramblers75.org.uk.
Introducing the Walking Programmes and Promotion Team
We work within Ramblers’ Campaigns Division on the strategic aim of making walking accessible to all. We develop and deliver externally funded projects that promote everyday walking for health and well being to people who are currently inactive, such as Get Walking Keep Walking and Families Walk4Life. We produce information resources to help people walk more, and carry out research and policy work around promoting walking.
We also support Areas and Groups in their promoting walking work. We’re the home of the Led Walks officers, who work with our thousands of walk leaders and programme coordinators, and we manage national initiatives like the 75th Anniversary Baton Walks and Get Walking Day.
For full details about our work see www.ramblers.org.uk/walking.
You can contact us by emailing Des de Moor, Senior Everyday Walking Officer, des.demoor@ramblers.org.uk.
Pic below: Hassan Kazeme.
