Manchester City’s player ambassador Joe Hart attends a Strike a Balance session, offering his support to local primary school children
in – such as dance, beauty and the media – rather than football. We gave them a membership card offering incentives to exercise more, as well as fi nding enthusiastic dance leaders to engage them in lessons and competitions. To date, this has resulted in a 19.5 per cent increase in activity levels among a group that was completely sedentary.” The success of The Movement
has resulted in Derby City Council approaching the trust once more, this time with the challenge of instigating behavioural change among adults suffering from substance misuse. Launched in June 2011 by a partnership formed between DCITC, NHS Derby City, Phoenix Futures and the council, Active Choices is a one-year programme that seeks to improve the physical and mental health of individuals aged over 18 entering Class A drug treatment services. “We have 91 clients who have been
referred to us by Phoenix Futures,” explains Carnall. “As adults returning to the community from prison, they have committed to staying clean during our 48-week holistic intervention programme, which works alongside traditional services. We use free weekly activity sessions – ranging from football to boxing, swimming to gardening – as well as boot camps and healthy eating lessons to keep our clients focused on the attainment of a healthy body and state of mind. Close family members also have free access to exercise as part of our rehabilitation approach. During these sessions, clients are accompanied by one of our motivational staff members,
January 2013 © Cybertrek 2013
who are qualifi ed Derby County football coaches seconded to the trust.” A year into Active Choices and the council has been delighted by the 0 per cent re-offending rate among participants, all of whom have maintained activity while on the programme. Of those completing their 48 weeks, 30 per cent have moved on to sustained club activity. Carnall points out that free access to the council’s leisure centres has been
WE FOCUSED ON THE ACTIVITIES THEY WERE INTERESTED IN – SUCH
AS DANCE, BEAUTY AND THE MEDIA – RATHER THAN FOOTBALL
instrumental in the delivery of Active Choices, but he does see an opportunity for commercial providers to get involved in similar projects in the future. He explains: “It’s a brave new world in terms of community partnerships. Programmes today need to have real and hard outcomes, so we should all be thinking about how we can play our part. And after all, some clients will become future customers of the leisure centres to which they have been introduced by our projects.”
CITY IN THE COMMUNITY (CITC) Established as a pilot of the PFA’s ‘Football in the Community’ initiative back in 1986, Manchester City’s community scheme began with football coaching and is now one of the industry’s longest-running programmes. Operating today as the self-sustaining City in the Community Foundation (CITC), it works with between 30,000 and 40,000 people a year across 32 projects based around the following fi ve themes: skills and enterprise, health and activity, football and multi-sports, disability sports, and community cohesion. Partnering with public and private sector organisations, charitable groups, the Premier League and Manchester City Football Club, CITC employs 21 full-time staff including a health & activity manager, Lisa Kimpton. “We started delivering physical activity and fi tness sessions to local people about a decade ago,” says Kimpton. “NHS Manchester, which heard of our work, approached us to form a partnership through which we collaborate on conveying a variety of messages, including healthier lifestyles for adult men and mental health support.” One of CITC’s award-winning projects
is Strike a Balance, which launched in February 2011 in collaboration with Healthy Schools Manchester and law fi rm Hill Dickinson to offer a free, fi ve- week programme about healthy living to Manchester primary schools. “Healthy Schools Manchester identifi ed that children aged between nine and 10 are at an optimum age to receive information about what they should
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