In December 2017, Active Bradford was awarded funding from the National Lottery via Sport England to lead on a pilot programme to support people to be more physically active. Born in Bradford’s research is integral to this programme and a research and implementation team are working together from the Bradford Institute of Health Research.
Bradford is one of twelve places nationally tasked with trying to better understand what helps people to become active in communities across the country.
The Bradford pilot is focused on improving the health and social outcomes of children aged 5 – 14 and their families in areas of North Bradford. The programme is called JU:MP (Join Us: Move Play) and the team is working with local communities and organisations to increase opportunities for children to be active, including things like making improvements to parks and greenspace. Ultimately, it aims to support children and families to enjoy being active.
The four key themes
After talking and listening to children and families in our area, we have agreed on four areas to focus the programme on:
- Families
- We will raise awareness of the importance of children’s physical activity and reducing excessive screen time.
- We will communicate ‘what’s on’ to families and children.
- Community
- Our Community Engagement Managers will support local community groups and provide small-scale funding for groups to test out their ideas to get children active.
- We will identify, train and support local physical activity leaders.
- Environment
- We will work with partners to build engagement in local parks and improve play facilities.
- We will improve local greenspace and encourage engagement with the wider countryside.
- Organisations
- We will support schools to increase every childs physical activity levels throughout the school day.
- Local VCS organisations will work with us to deliver a range of fun, informal physical activities.
- We will work with local Mosques to embed physical activity in the Madrassas.
Meet the team
Jan Burkhardt – Programme Director
Caroline Swain – Community Engagement Manager
Kamran Siddique – Community Engagement Manager
Sonia Fayyaz – Community Engagement Manager
Dr Sally Barber – Research Director
Dr Sufyan Abid – Senior Research Fellow
Dr Jennifer Hall – Senior Research Fellow
Amanda Seims – Senior Research Fellow
You will hear more about the work that we’re doing as we progress, and you may be involved directly – if you’re a child, parent or carer within North Bradford you should definitely be involved. Please visit the JU:MP website for the latest information and updates.
