Project Title: Activities Coordinator

Funding Received: £4866.00

Project Outline: The project will target older adults with long-term health conditions and/or from lower socioeconomic groups.

The funding will be used to employ a Support Worker for six months to work with older adults to overcome barriers to participation such as, confidence and motivation, the impact of exercise on their health condition, fear of injury, cost, cognitive decline and isolation. In addition to introducing them to existing sport and physical activities, with the aim of ensuring ongoing engagement in activities beyond the life of the project. We want to target Central and Hindpool wards in Barrow, where we already provide 7 physical activity sessions every week, to increase the uptake of these activities.

Referrals to the Support Worker will be promoted via community outreach, existing referring organisations, such as the Frailty Multi-Disciplinary Team, NHS, GP Practices and Adult Social Care.

The Support Worker will focus exclusively on supporting access to sport and physical activities, as our other social groups are already well supported. The worker will also establish new groups in Hindpool and Central wards, including Archery, Boccia, and Curling, as well as additional sessions of our existing physical activities. We currently use the Barrow Library, The Living Well Centre, The Forum, and Hindpool Community Centre for these groups and will introduce additional sessions at these locations, as well as exploring the use of school and church halls in the wards.

Phase 4 funding: £5071

Funding from Phase 4 of the Together Fund is being used to target activities in the Central and Hindpool wards in Barrow, to extend the rage of physical activities already on offer. These sessions will particularly focus on Men’s Health, as current attendance at sessions has a 70% female/30% male spilt. The funding will be used to continue the employment of a Physical Activity Coordinator for a further six months. The Physical Activity Coordinator works with older people to overcome barriers to participation and introduce them to existing sport and physical activities, with the aim of ensuring ongoing engagement in activities beyond the life of the project. The additional funding  from the Together Fund has enabled the expansion of the programme and,which is now providing 29 sessions (22 of which run every week), with a total of 300 people attending sessions on a weekly basis. The funding is continuing to tackle barriers to older people’s participation in sport and physical activity , such as confidence and motivation, concerns about the impact of exercise on existing health condition, fear of injury, cost, cognitive decline and isolation.