Beat the Street is set to return to Wolverhampton this Spring as Sport England pilot the walking and cycling initiative to tackle inactivity in the city.
Following a successful programme in 2016 which engaged 11% of the population in Wolverhampton, Beat the Street will be returning to the city as part of Sport England’s strategic focus to increase physical activity levels in England.
The programme is 12 months with the Beat the Street game running from Wednesday 15 March until Wednesday 3 May 2017 and includes £180,000 of National Lottery funding as well as £50,000 from City of Wolverhampton Council.
With more than one in four people in England doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week, Sport England are keen to see if the Beat the Street pilot can engage those in the community who are currently inactive or who aren’t doing sufficient activity to enhance their health and quality of life. They are particularly keen to see if through taking part in the game
Intelligent Health can inspire people to sustain being active beyond the seven weeks and into regular moderate intensity activity be that informal recreation such as walking and cycling through to structured and organised sessions.
Director of Community Sport at Sport England, Mike Diaper said: “Staying active is really important for our mental and physical health, but we know than many people don’t feel able to get involved in either sport or physical activity. Thanks to National Lottery funding, ‘Beat the Street’ offers a fun and rewarding challenge, which all the family can get involved in. I would encourage everyone to get involved and see if you can beat the street!”
Dr William Bird, MBE said: ‘Sport England’s strategy is important, ambitious and comes at a critical time for both the NHS and the nation’s health. We are thrilled to be working in partnership with Sport England tackling the problem across a city. Physical activity has more health benefits than any other single intervention and is the means to a healthy community.
“We believe Beat the Street can be a base platform for activity by getting people moving and then into long term activity. We need to empower people to make the change to a more active lifestyle. Beat the Street delivers this in a fun and engaging manner and then supports people into further activity whether formal sport, activity in green spaces or continuing to walk or cycle around their town. We ran a successful Beat the Street in Wolverhampton in 2016 and are delighted to be able to work with the great team at the City of Wolverhampton and local partners again.“
Councillor Paul Sweet, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: “We are absolutely thrilled that Beat the Street is returning to Wolverhampton this spring. Last year’s inaugural event took the City by storm, with thousands of people young and old hitting the streets and playing along.
“In doing so they took a big step towards improving their health and wellbeing, as well as having great fun at the same time. Together, we clocked up nearly 200,000 miles — and I am sure we can go even further in 2017.”
The twelve-month rolling programme will link participants to opportunities to remain active with local providers and in the community. It will be supported by robust evaluation including a 6 and 12-month evaluation post implementation.
