The Movement

Derby County in the Community was successful in securing £297,194 from the PL/PFA fund which is 56% of an overall project cost of £526,046. The project has seen the appointment of 2 full-time staff (Youth Project Manager and Youth Project Officer) and see 2 other staff have roles adapted to support the project. All staff are based within the b-active team at Celtic House

Derby County in the Community and the b-active partnership, lead by Derby City Council, are working together to develop and deliver a creative and innovative three year programme of sport and physical activity for young people in Derby. The project aims to increase participation of 11 to 16 year olds and give young people the opportunity to get active through a range of different sports, physical activity and dance. The project aims to promote healthy lifestyle messages to the young people including healthy eating, smoking cessation and encourage them to adopt more positive attitudes.

The project is designed to raise awareness of the importance of sport and physical activity, its benefits to health and well-being and details where activities can be accessed. We want to show young people how to make physical activity a part of everyday life whilst at the same time providing information and support about healthy eating. Targeted work with activities including dance will take place in areas of the city where there are low participation rates for girls. The activities will be decided by the young people through further consultation. Venues within local neighbourhoods will also be decided by the girls.

This project uses the positive power of sport to improve the quality of life for young people in areas of the city with poor health and high levels of physical inactivity. Football and the involvement of Derby County Football Club will be the hook to engage with young people and get them involved in physical activity. The project will also build upon the good practice from existing football in the community initiatives in the city such as the Hat Trick project in Derwent to engage with young people who may find it difficult to access physical activity for a whole number of reasons.

The project will adopt a community development approach through being mobile and going into all the secondary schools in the city. The project will promote healthy lifestyle messages delivered by partner agencies, including the Primary Care Trust at local venues in communities. The healthy lifestyle messages will include diet and will encourage young people to develop more positive attitudes towards active lifestyles. The community development approach will include a number of features:

• Information on physical activity available across the city but especially within their local neighbourhood
• The b-active fest website to find out about local sports clubs and teams, incentives to getting more active, healthy eating information, smoking cessation, Derby County FC player profiles and virtual trainers
• Small items of sport and physical activity equipment including DVDs, dance mats, footballs and other sporting items to use or borrow.

The programme of sport and physical activity will include football, dance, cheerleading and futsal which came out of detailed research already undertaken in the city with 353 year 9 females in most of the secondary schools. Through local consultation work, further activities suggested by the young people will be included within the project. Qualified coaching and project staff will lead the activities. The project team will spend three or four evenings each week providing sport and physical activities in local
communities with the least active female young people who will have been identified through signing up for the b-active incentive card scheme. These activities will be delivered in 8 areas over the lifetime of the project. The approach being adopted for the project is an ideal means to reach the least active females and will be equipped to enable them to become involved in physical activity and team games. The project will deliver opportunities to young people where they want it, at a time when they want it
and in an activity or sport that they want.

The project will be inclusive and target those females who do not necessarily play for their local sports teams. Information will be provided on the website of local teams that the young people may want to join following the period of activities. The b-sporty team in the Council’s Sport and Leisure service will provide the links with sports clubs and teams across the city. Where suitable clubs do not exist, the b-sporty team will work with local young people to set up their own clubs through its Ready Set Go programme by providing support and mentoring.