Cumbria Outdoors has been awarded £244,000 from the Big Lottery Fund to improve the health, wellbeing and lifestyles of hundreds of families in Cumbria.
The award is part of a £7 million Wellbeing Programme, supporting 27 Healthy Living initiatives across the North West from now until 2012.
Cumbria Outdoors is a part of the county council's Children's Services. It will be using the money to provide a wide range of opportunities to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of those young people in West Cumbria who are most at risk of being excluded from healthier lifestyles.
The young people, sometimes with members of their family, will be involved in a programme of day and residential activities which will include physical endeavoursand healthy eating, focusing on the '5 a day' guidelines. The days and workshops will include:
- canoe rafting sessions, followed by healthy eating BBQs
- 'Fun Fitness' days, including fitness testing
- Ready Steady Cook workshops
- Triathlon days
- Mountain biking
- Rock climbing and orienteering
The young people and their families will also benefit from free and subsidised access to the county's sports centres, swimming pools, libraries and museums.
Overall, the project will bring together a range of organisations working in such fields as health, sport, education and culture to make it easier for people to take part in physical and cultural activities.
Deborah Hunter is Projects Manager with Cumbria Outdoors. She said:
"We are delighted to get this award from the Big Lottery Fund - it is an endorsement of the work we have been doing up to now, and will enable us to develop that work and involve many more people throughout West Cumbria.
"In addition to this, we believe this project recognises the influential role parents play with regard to young people's physical activity and healthy eating. By involving the whole family in the workshops, when the young people go home they will still be in an informed and supportive environment."
County councillor Philip Chappelhow is cabinet member for Children's Services. He said:
"There is a very real need for this project in Cumbria; the geographical nature of the county means that it is very easy for people to become isolated in their communities.
"As well as this, there is also a need to get young people more active - obesity is becoming a real problem across the whole of the UK, and this project should help to highlight how important physical activity and healthy eating in the young can prevent chronic diseases later in life."
ENDS
Further information from Alison Lister, media team, on 01228 606335
Notes
Cumbria Outdoors is part of the county council's Learning Support Service within Children's Services. It provides activities for educational groups in the county to enhance personal and social development
In 2004 Ofsted inspectors nominated Cumbria Outdoors as a national example of best practice, praising the service for the quality of its teaching, its happy environment, its range of activities for pupils of varying abilities, and its approach to education and social inclusion
The Big Lottery Fund award to Cumbria Outdoors is part of a successful £7 million regional bid led by Stockport Council on behalf of local authorities throughout the North West.
The national £165 million wellbeing programme provides funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve wellbeing. The programme will focus on three strands: mental health - to help people and communities to improve mental wellbeing; physical activity - to help people to become more physically active in their daily lives and in their communities; and healthy eating - for children, parents and the wider community to eat more healthily. To deliver this programme, the Big Lottery fund will appoint a number of organisations that will each deliver a portfolio of projects.
The Big Lottery Funds rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery funded project.
Big Lottery Press Office Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888