University Helps Active Lincolnshire Gain Five Year Funding to Deliver Physical Activity

Active Lincolnshire has been awarded five-year funding worth £2.6 million from Sport England to deliver a national Uniting the Movement strategy locally through the county-wide initiative Let’s Move Lincolnshire.

A team of postgraduate students, academics and professional staff from across the University of Lincoln, UK, were commissioned by Active Lincolnshire to produce an extensive consultancy report based on data from just under 600 people to inform the new strategy for advancing the Let’s Move Lincolnshire campaign.

Let’s Move Lincolnshire supports and encourages physical activity across the county with a particular emphasis on helping those facing greater barriers to participation in exercise and sport.

This collaborative project was innovative in its approach; a paid professional student consultancy hub was constructed to equip the students with valuable industry experience. The data collection was student-led, allowing the academics to concentrate their time on the interpretation, analysis and write-up of the findings.

As a result, student employability was at the forefront of the project and a precedent was set for future consultancy collaboration between business degree students, academics and the wider community.

The Let’s Move Lincolnshire strategy was launched at the 2022 Lincolnshire Show where Dr Hanya Pielichaty, Associate Professor at LIBS and Director of Student Inclusion (Eleanor Glanville Institute), delivered a speech outlining its objectives.

Dr Pielichaty said: “Students and staff have partnered to deliver evidence-based research to strategically inform the future development of physical activity provision for this county.

“An emphasis on equity and diversity has underpinned this approach to ensure that structural and personal challenges to physical activity can be tackled in unison.”

The report asserts that more work needs to be done to ensure all residents feel represented within their community, identifying intersectional issues relating to deprivation, cost, access and transport as barriers to participation in exercise.

The strategy proposes an agile whole systems approach with a shared vision to get people more active more often. This includes the engagement of families and explores ways to capitalise on the abundance of green and blue spaces in Lincolnshire which provide safe and enjoyable landscapes for physical activity.

Emma Tatlow, CEO of Active Lincolnshire, said: “Through extensive community engagement with citizens and stakeholders, the collaboration has resulted in a ten-year vision for a more active Lincolnshire that is driven by community need and has been adopted by key decision makers.

“We believe the impact of this work will continue to positively influence the physical activity sector and connectivity in the county for years to come.”

To read the ten-year strategy, visit www.activelincolnshire.com/get-involved/lets-move-lincolnshire/lets-move-lincolnshire-strategy

To learn more about ways to be active in Lincolnshire, visit https://letsmovelincolnshire.com/.