[Wednesday 26 September] Today, to mark National Fitness Day, a new movement – Active Together – has been launched to support people who live, work and play in North Yorkshire to become more active and find the fun in fitness.
The project aims to help communities create ways to bring people together to be active. Being more active can help you to sleep easier, feel energised, and improve heart health. Being active with others in your community can have a positive effect on your health, both physically and mentally, and help you to build support systems.
The project is a partnership between North Yorkshire Sport, Community First Yorkshire and Hambleton District Council. Community First Yorkshire is grateful to DEFRA for funding towards this project.
Active Together has a new website page with free how to guides and activity ideas: www.northyorkshiresport.co.uk/active-together.
Activities do not have to revolve around sport. They could be a buggy walk, gardening club, dog agility group or den making sessions, and can make use of space already available. Communities could be anyone from residents in a village, work colleagues, school friends, people with a common interest of any age, who want to get together to be more active, together.
Leah Swain Chief Executive at Community First Yorkshire said:
“I’m hoping to set up a dog agility group in my local area to encourage my children to be more active, with the added benefit of getting me to move more too! The children have so much fun, they don’t even realise they’re doing physical activity. I’m going to encourage others in my area to get involved too, hopefully it’ll help to reduce loneliness in rural areas, and people of any age and all walks of life can get involved.”
David Watson, Chief Executive at North Yorkshire Sport said:
‘We are excited to work with Community First Yorkshire and Hambleton District Council on Active Together, which we think will be a great resource for North Yorkshire residents to enable them to become more active in their local spaces, and also help us in our mission of driving positive change through sport and physical activity in North Yorkshire.’
ENDS
Editor’s Notes
Media contact: Richard Hall, Head of Marketing, North Yorkshire Sport tel. 07860 954 338, or Jo Fox, Marketing and Communications Officer, Community First Yorkshire tel 01904 704 177.
Community First Yorkshire
Community First Yorkshire is an influential, regional body that works with voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises and rural communities across North, South and West Yorkshire.
We are an independent charity and membership body formed from a merger between Rural Action Yorkshire and the North Yorkshire and York Forum in 2017. We are also a rural community council, part of the national ACRE Network (Action with Communities in Rural England) helping communities improve the quality of life for all people living and working in rural Yorkshire.
We are funded by DEFRA to provide an important rural advocacy and influencing role, enabling and empowering communities to develop the confidence to help themselves and ensure their needs are heard by policy makers and service providers, on a local, regional and national scale.
We are the first port of call for voluntary organisations, social enterprises and parish Council looking for practical support. We can help with everything from governance and funding, to strategic planning and community engagement through our training and events, resources and networks.
t: 01904 704177 e: info@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk
North Yorkshire Sport
North Yorkshire Sport Ltd is a registered charity and the County Sports Partnership (CSP) for North Yorkshire & York.
Our overall aims are to promote and encourage increased participation in sport & physical activity, reduce inactivity levels across the population and within targeted demographics and to use sport as a driver for positive change to help tackle barriers to being regularly active, such as health, deprivation, training & employment and disability in order to build stronger communities.
Hambleton District Council
Hambleton District Council has a commitment to enhancing health and wellbeing for people who live and work in Hambleton. Active Together will provide information and advice for people and groups who are looking for ways to get active or more active with others. t: 01609 775577 e. communities@hambleton.gov.uk www.hambleton.gov.uk
Facebook: Hambleton District Council