A grant of £10,000 has been awarded by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Activity Fund which will help the Foundation add to existing activities in the city and people overcome potential barriers to improving their health and wellbeing.
As a result of data collected by Foundation partners, staff will target areas such as Bushbury South, Low Hill and East Park to offer activities to local residents as well as adding further provision for groups already set up such as Wolves Elders and Molineux Memories.
In addition, the Foundation will also use the new funding to deliver sessions across religious venues, for parents to co-incide with dropping off or picking up children from school and will train volunteers to become community activators working on the project.
“Molineux Movers is a really exciting initiative which will allow us to get out and about in the local community to deliver physical activity sessions,” says health officer Matt Campbell.
“We have targeted different areas of the city where we can hopefully add to existing provision and build up positive working relationships to encourage people to become more active.
“We have a good knowledge of what communities require within the city and continued engagement is vital so we can understand any barriers to participation.
“By identifying places in those areas such as religious venues, parks, open spaces and sports facilities that are known to participants it should make them feel more comfortable and willing to give the sessions a try.
“In doing so, people from those areas will have the opportunity to improve their mental and physical wellbeing, reduce loneliness and isolation and generally improve their quality of life.”
Sessions will be tailored to the particular group of participants who are attending, including the Wolves Elders group which already runs for people over the age of 55 and Molineux Memories, for those with dementia and their carers.
“We are delighted to have successfully secured this funding from Sport England which will allow us both to introduce new activities for projects already in place, and also extend our offering to new participants from targeted areas of the city,” added the Foundation’s health & wellbeing manager Rachel Smith.
“We all understand how taking part in physical activities can not only improve physical health but mental health as well, and are looking forward to getting out and about to deliver sessions right in the heart of the local community where they can have a really positive impact.”
Sport England is a public body which invests up to £300million of National Lottery and government money each year in projects and programmes which help people get active and play sport.
- As part of Molineux Movers, the Foundation today staged a ‘Learn to Nordic Walk’ course at West Park with new Women’s Football sessions at the Foundation Arena starting from Monday, July 25th. Also, several more new activity sessions will be launched over the coming weeks including Walking Cricket, Multisport sessions and various exercise groups across the city. All these will be advertised across the Foundation’s social media platforms - @wwfcfoundation. For more information and details of how to get involved please email Matt Campbell at mattcampbell@wolves.co.uk.
