Since 2007, Get Walking Keep Walking has been the Ramblers' flagship project to promote everyday, independent walking to insufficiently active people as a great way of improving their physical and mental health and well being.
The £5million lottery funded project has worked in deprived areas of Birmingham, London, Manchester and Sheffield, helping people improve their health and well-being by walking regularly and independently from their doorsteps.
An independent evaluation has found Get Walking Keep Walking has been highly successful in reaching under-represented target audiences including those in deprived communities and black and minority ethnic groups, with a significant impact on walking that returned £3.61 of benefits from every £1 spent.
Read more about the impact of Get Walking (PDF).
Commissioners' leaflet: how Get Walking can help you promote active lifestyles locally.
How it works
The project encourages regular independent walking close to home as part of everyday life – including trips to shops, school and work – and to improve mental well-being as well as physical health.
It is based around a 12-week plan which can be followed using a Get Walking Pack, or through free locally based programmes combining information and motivation with led walks and other activities.
Programmes are usually based at existing organisations including community projects, mental health centres, black and minority ethnic organisations, elderly people's groups, GP practices and health centres, faith groups, Children's Centres, schools and housing associations.
Activities are supported by volunteers including volunteer walking ambassadors – keen walkers who already know the local area – and route developers who research safe, easy and attractive local walking routes.
Programmes are taking place in Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and the London Boroughs of Hackney, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets, and Get Walking Packs have been distributed across England.
The project website at www.getwalking.org includes MyGetWalking, a unique tool to help people follow the 12-week walking plan online, setting their own goals, logging walks and recording favourite routes. This is supplemented by exhuastive motivational and practical information about everyday walking and its benefits, and a growing range of downloadable walking routes, currently focused on the programme areas but soon to expand to include other areas too. Independent evaluation
CLES Consulting (the Centre for Local Economic Strategies) is independently evaluating the project and producing a series of reports. Its most recent report,, based on figures to the end of March 2011, found:
- Get Walking had engaged with 64,251 people -- 9,035 of them on facilitated programmes and 55,212 receiving Get Walking Packs. 600 volunteers had been involved and over 1,500 routes had been developed.
- 48% of participants in our face to face interventions classed themselves as inactive and a further 25% as insufficiently active when they first got involved.
- Almost half of all participants, and 57% of programme participants, lived in the top fifth most deprived wards in England.
- 48% of programme participants were from non-white ethnic backgrounds.
- Almost half the overall participants, and a third on programmes, were under 35 -- unusual as walking interventions typically attract predominantly older audiences.
- For every £1 spent on the project, an additional £3.61 has been generated in social, economic and environmental value.
- 12 weeks after their last contact with the project, 67% of participants had increased their activity levels, and 83% of those who were initially inactive increased their activity. These changes were not affected by ethnicity. The most intensive support -- face to face programmes -- had the most impact.
- 86% said their mental health improved after participating in the project.
- 70% reported improvements in life satisfaction after being involved in face-to-face interventions, including 32% of people on programmes who reported being "a lot more satisfied".
Read the full final evaluation report by CLES Consulting (PDF 4.7MB).
Funding and background
The project is funded by the Big Lottery Fund through the Travel Actively Consortium of leading walking, cycling and health organisations and supported by local councils, NHS trusts and the Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust. The current BIG Funding commenced at the beginning of 2008 and continues until the end of 2011. Prior to this, Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust funded a full scale pilot in South Birmingham which commenced in Summer 2007. The Birmingham team later became part of the main BIG-funded project.
Past information about the project can be found using the following links
