- Darren Campbell
A team of family support workers in Warwickshire have shared how introducing physical activity into everyday routines has helped transform their work with local children, young people and families as well as boosting their own wellbeing, as part of a project supported by Think Active.
Members of Warwickshire County Council’s former Strengthening Families Service spent 12 months exploring the benefits of integrating movement and physical activity into both their workplace environment and their day-to-day work providing targeted support for families and children.
Led by Jo Sabin, Warwickshire County Council’s Children and Families Operations Manager, alongside Team Leader Jane and support workers Oliver and Kirby, the project encouraged members of the Strengthening Families team to share ideas for ways to incorporate movement and physical activity into their service framework.
As the Active Partnership for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire, Think Active collaborated with the team on the peer-led initiative, supporting conversations and sharing of ideas within the team as well as building awareness of local connections and opportunities.
Reflections on this initiative were overwhelmingly positive, with the team’s findings featuring in a new case study published on the Think Active website last month.
Describing the impact of the project, one team member said: “It feels like we’ve thrown a stone into a pond, and the ripple effect is massive.”
The success of the project was built on slowly incorporating small changes to existing practices, with a willingness from the team to consider how things could be done slightly differently.
One of the small yet impactful ways of integrating physical activity explored by the team included buying simple practical resources such as footballs and chalks, with one team member describing how a casual kickaround with a young person at a local park – instead of meeting in the family home – helped them establish a much stronger connection.
“I took a football to a meeting with one of the young people I’d been working with,” they said. “Instead of talking in the house like we usually did, I suggested we head to the park for a kickaround. He shared more during this session of play than at any previous meeting.”
“It feels like we’ve thrown a stone into a pond, and the ripple effect is massive.”
Warwickshire Strengthening Families Team
Other changes included the practitioners role-modelling activities which the parents and carers could then replicate, such as using bubbles and creating obstacle courses drawn in chalk.
Meanwhile the Strengthening Families team also discovered benefits for their own health and wellbeing, implementing ideas such as a dedicated social space in their office to encourage staff to come away from computer screens, and incorporating fun and social physical activities into team meetings.
Reflecting on the learnings from the project, the case study highlights a number of guiding principles to support similar sustainable approaches, from maintaining support of senior management to sharing knowledge of local spaces and facilities, as well as regularly reflecting upon progress to adapt their approach.
The project successfully demonstrated how making small changes to existing practice can lead to substantial benefits in supporting positive outcomes for children, young people and families, as well as for workforce wellbeing.
Find out more about the project in the full case study report here.
Think Active is a member of the Active Partnerships network, collaborating with local partners throughout Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to promote the power of sport and physical activity for transforming lives and keeping people living well. Find out more about what we do.
