Enable2 fund ExerScience
05 Jul 2018
Budgeting for meals and ensuring your children are active: The many struggles of the modern-day family and how one programme Enable2 funded aimed to help this.
Research has found that unhealthy foods are three times cheaper than healthy foods. This is an alarming statistic that unfortunately affects children, even more so if they grow up in a less affluent society. In fact, research has gone on to prove that “children living in the most deprived areas experience double the rates of obesity than those in the richest”. We are fortunate as a social enterprise to target local communities where children may face obstacles with their diet and exercise regimes. Through outreach work in partnership with other organisations to provide them with long-term healthier ways of living.
A pilot programme we funded this year called ExerScience took a two-pronged approach to educating the family unit on diet and exercise. On one hand the project aimed to educate parents on what to look out for on labels, and how to shop “savvy” in a world where junk food and unhealthy alternatives are increasingly advertised to us. Whilst at the same time their children took part in fun physical activities to show them that exercise is important and needn’t be boring. Given that children, on average, need 60 minutes of exercise a day this project demonstrated the importance of incorporating more physical activity into their everyday lives.
ExerScience ran for 12 weeks after school to make it easier for parents to attend and to not disrupt or take away from the children’s learning time. The programme ran from January to May, in total 29 parents attended bringing with them 53 children whose ages range from 4 years old to 12 years old. The project was developed and run by Little Sports Coaching (LSC), who are a specialist children’s sports coaching company based in Manchester. The pilot programme was delivered by nutrition expert Emma Savage and sports coach Matt Richardson. They both reflected on the outcome of the project:
Emma Savage: “Throughout the weeks of ExerScience I feel the group gained confidence to talk about what they wanted to learn and achieve as a family.
Some sessions, the parents would come and to tell me what they had achieved that week, which showed me how motivated and determined they were at making small changes to achieve a healthier lifestyle for them and their children”.
Matt Richardson: “It has been a pleasure to launch ExerScience and working closely with local families has been a great experience.
Over the 12-week programme the children had lots of fun during the games and activities, with improved confidence, stamina and motivation. We feel at LSC that sport is a great facilitator for both physical and mental health as well as building on the children’s social skills”.
A parent commented on what they have taken from the programme “…Now after being educated, you know what to look for, especially if there are 100 ingredients in there you know to stay away”.
Matt ensured the sessions were fun and dynamic
Similarly, one child said “...if you run around you’re healthy”.
It is programmes like ExerScience that help to change the mindset of those in local communities most impacted by the research highlighted in the opening of this blog. Due to the success of this programme it has been rolled out to another school later this year in Bradford. Check back to our news section in autumn to read on the progress of the second project.
For more information on current and past social return activities, navigate to our news section on our website. Stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and don’t forget to hit share if you like what we are doing for the communities around us.
Sources: Calendar News Clip https://www.facebook.com/calendarnews/videos/1961741450525013/