Beat the Street East London, funded by the National Charity Partnership, has won the Resources award at the 2016 London Sport Awards –
Intelligent Health’s East London Beat the Street project has won an award at the London Sport Awards, held at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Thursday, 21st January. Funded by the National Charity Partnership between Diabetes UK, the British Heart Foundation and Tesco, the community walking project helped over 20,000 people in four boroughs collectively walk an amazing total of 103,958 miles in autumn last year.
The award category recognised Beat the Street as an innovative approach to utilising investment and resources to get more Londoners active. The East London Beat the Street competition was held in the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney in September and October last year. More than 22,000 people took part, walking nearly 104,000 miles in seven weeks. Beat the Street East London centred on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and players walked, ran or cycled around the area. The area was turned into a real-life game and players’ journeys were recorded via cards which are tapped on sensors called Beat Boxes.
The National Charity Partnership announced the launch of the East London Beat the Street project in September, in response to new figures which revealed that very few Londoners actually know how much activity their children should be doing. Three quarters (75%) of these parents completely underestimated the amount of exercise their child needs. Tesco is committed to raising £30 million over a three year period, to help fund Partnership projects, like Beat the Street, aimed at lowering people’s risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart and circulatory disease, and the vital and ongoing work of both charities. East London is the first of six areas where the Partnership will be funding Beat the Street over the next two years.
Babs Evans, Head of Prevention for the National Charity Partnership commented; “Being inactive can lead to a multitude of health problems for children, including an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and heart and circulatory disease in later life.
“We are delighted to see that Beat the Street has already had such a fantastic impact on the health of thousands of families in East in London in its first year. We will be returning to the area in 2016 and hope to inspire even more people to see how fun and easy walking around the local area can be. Walking for just 10 minutes a few times each day can help improve health, quality of life and wellbeing.”
Intelligent Health founder and CEO Dr William Bird, added: “With fantastic feedback from the local community in the four boroughs during and after Beat the Street East London, to have won a London Sport Award really is the icing on the cake.
“We are all thrilled to have won this award as recognition of the impact that Beat the Street can have on an area in terms of increasing the levels of physical activity, community engagement and the local environment.”
For more information about the National Charity Partnership visit www.tescocharitypartnership.org.uk
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