Celebrities on Board to Support Next Phase of 5X60 Scheme
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Bitesize Quarterly newsletter for community food and physical activity initiatives in Wales September 2007 Issue 16 Celebrities on board to support next phase of 5x60 scheme S4C TV presenter Alex Jones joined Rhodri Glyn information on the scheme, video messages and Thomas, the Welsh Assembly Government Minister interviews with its celebrity ambassadors. Former responsible for Sport, at this year’s Royal Welsh Show ‘Stereophonics’ drummer Stuart Cable and his new to launch the latest phase in the Welsh Assembly band ‘Killing for Company’, ‘Dirty Sanchez’, extreme Government’s 5x60 scheme. sports star Matt Pritchard and Paralympic athlete Nathan Stephens have also added their support The initiative, which is designed to encourage young to the scheme. In the future, users will have the people to do at least five 60 minute sessions of physical opportunity to download podcasts, posters, images activity per week, is now using digital technology and and screensavers. celebrity endorsement to attract its target audience. Young people visiting the Royal Welsh who had mobile 5x60 also has a dedicated ‘My Space’ page www. phones with Bluetooth capabilities were given the myspace.com/5xsixty which has been tailored to opportunity to win 5x60 goodies and to download appeal to its youth market. The fully interactive screensavers to their phones. site will include video messages from its new A dedicated website www.5x60.org.uk has been ambassadors and insight into their own positive developed which will host an encyclopaedia of experiences of sport and physical activity. S4C TV presenter Alex Jones lends support to Welsh Assembly Government 5x60 scheme 1 Workplace Health and Physical activity £2m cash injection into the health of the Welsh workforce In its ongoing attempt to combat the desk potato With a £1m cash injection from the National Lottery trend, the Sports Council Wales is this year set to and Welsh Assembly Government, the Active invest £2m of funding into creating opportunities for Workplace Challenge Fund is set to make up to Welsh businesses to cultivate an all round healthier £10,000 available to organisations with up to 250 workforce. employees and up to £100,000 for businesses with a 250+ strong workforce. For more information contact Funding is available to support active travel plans, to your Sports Council Wales regional office:South East fund Physical Activity Instructors and Coordinators Wales on 0845 045 0902; South West Wales on 0845 and to purchase equipment or create fitness suites 045 0906 or North Wales on 0845 045 0908. and showering facilities. Wales Centre for Health get on their bikes Wales Centre for Health staff have also been feeling the benefits of using pedal power to get to work and meetings instead of their cars. Nine bikes have been purchased from local Cardiff shop, The Bike Shed, thanks to a grant from the Welsh Assembly Government Active Lifestyles Fund. Physical Activity Network Co-ordinator, Ann Marie Brackpool says, “Having the bikes is making a huge difference. Sitting behind our desks all day means it’s hard to build physical activity into our daily lives. The bikes have been really popular as they are a brilliant alternative to just sitting behind the wheel of a car and a great way to stay healthy. And the best part – aside from always having room to park – is that we are reducing our carbon footprint.” For more information contact Ann Marie Brackpool on 029 2022 7744 or AnnMarie. [email protected]. Wales Centre for Health staff still smiling despite being told to get on their bikes 2 Singleton’s Active Travel Project wins plaudits Following the suspension of local bus routes at cycling equipment, cycle storage facilities, cycle Swansea’s Singleton Hospital in 2005 managers saw confidence sessions and provided cyclists and walkers an opportunity to find a healthy alternative to the with free breakfasts and upgraded existing paths to problem by encouraging staff to walk or cycle into provide safe cycling routes. The Active Travel Project work. A survey found that almost 40 per cent of staff was named ‘best walking and cycling project’ at the lived within a four mile radius of work. With advice annual National Transport Awards for Wales in May and a £20,000 grant from the Sports Council, the 2007. The Trust is now looking to build the fitness of NHS Trust refurbished locker rooms to create full staff at other sites over the next three years. changing facilities, set up a bicycle pool; purchased Pembrokeshire LHB Staff Wellbeing Programme Pembrokeshire Local Health Board (LHB) has come up with some innovative ideas to encourage physical activity amongst their staff. The Staff Wellbeing Programme started in April 2006 as part of the LHB’s work towards the Corporate Health Standard. Through ongoing fitness and health checks, individuals have the opportunity to establish their current level of health and discuss options for making positive lifestyle changes. Related activities taking place within the organisation are also explained to help to motivate staff to take their first steps towards a healthier lifestyle. Helen Stewart, Staff Wellbeing Programme Pembrokeshire Coordinator says, “The fitness and health checks Staff Wellbeing are definitely the catalyst to engaging individuals Programme into a healthier lifestyle. There is an emphasis on the social benefits of physical activity to encourage participation”. Activities organised by the LHB include rowing coaching sessions, pilates, tai chi and a walk to run programme, where staff meet after work to follow an easy 12 week programme which enables them to Information is provided through posters and run for 30 minutes at the end. Activities are run at motivating emails are sent to remind people what’s different times of the day, before work, after work happening and to encourage participation. The LHB and at lunchtime, to fit into people’s available time. allows staff to undertake certain activities such as health checks and therapies during their working day As a result of the programme several members of and subsidises the cost. staff and their families have joined local rowing clubs and completed the Great River Race, a 22 mile race For more information email Helen Stewart, Staff held annually on the Thames. The walk to run group Wellbeing Programme Coordinator at Helen. have just progressed to a 10k programme which will [email protected]. enable them to run a 10k race in October and one member of staff successfully completed the London marathon after making a commitment to improve his lifestyle. 3 Award Winners Food Standards Agency Wales AFAL Awards 2007 The Food Standards Agency (FSA) Wales again recognised projects from across Wales through the AFAL Award Scheme at its recent nutrition conferences. Launched in 2003, the Award recognises individual or team contributions to local nutrition initiatives that have made a positive impact on the diet or eating habits in the communities they serve. The following winners were awarded £2000 and a celebratory fruit bowl: Riverside Community Food Cooperative, Cardiff aims to offer affordable and easily obtained fresh fruit and vegetables to local residents, increasing North Wales winners and runners up (pictured with awareness of healthy eating and overcoming some of Phil Morgan, FSA Wales’ Assistant Director, and the barriers that prevent individuals and families from Rob Pickard, Chair of the Welsh Food Advisory meeting the ‘five a day’ target. Committee) Cardiac Cooking Companion Project, Wrexham Flintshire Breast-feeding Peer Support Programme created a cookbook to raise greater awareness of the aims to promote breastfeeding as the normal way principles of healthy eating and to provide affordable to feed an infant, especially in the cultural groups easy to prepare recipes suitable for cardiac patients where breastfeeding is not the norm, to reduce health and their families. inequalities for those babies and mothers. Volunteer mothers are trained to become breastfeeding peers The Nutrition and Health Team, Alive and Ticking who work from a variety of premises including Project, Neath Port Talbot, created a pictorial hospitals and the homes of breastfeeding mothers. cookbook for communities with low levels of literacy or for people for whom English is not their first language. The aim of the cookbook is to increase confidence among these groups in cooking healthy balanced meals while also promoting greater consumption of fruit and vegetables. Ponthafren’s Physical Fun and Fine Food Project aims to increase physical activity and cooking skills for people with mental health difficulties who live in an isolated community. The project has set up an organic garden which is cared for by members, provides cooking classes and has developed, produced and marketed a recipe book containing nutritional advice. South Wales winners and runners up 4 A further five projects were awarded as runners up and were presented with £1000 and a celebratory fruit bowl: Rhyl Football Club Healthy Eating Scheme aims Get Up and Grow, Monmouthshire Youth Service to encourage children to eat healthier diets and live aims to broaden the curriculum so that young people more active lives. Children are invited into the club can engage in activities in a rural setting and connect for a tour of the ground and dressing rooms and with their environment. The project also helps receive information about how the players prepare for local schools and youth clubs to establish their own matches and their diet and exercise routines. gardens. Kitchens of Cardiff aims to understand different Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Healthy cultures and communities in Cardiff through Options Award Scheme uses encouragement and research and learn to cook healthy and traditional education to target premises serving food to the food from different cultures. A cultural cookbook public. The project assists people in the catering has been created for young people who are moving industry to provide healthy foods from clean into independent living to help them create exciting establishments in a healthy environment.