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October 11, 2024
Sport England’s This Girl Can (TGC) campaign and free group exercise provider, Our Parks, have released a new report for those interested in supporting culturally diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups to be more active. Noting that few digital interventions have been created for these groups, learnings cover a range of areas such as digital product development, community building and targeted marketing.
‘Inspiring more inclusive physical activity interventions‘ shares insights from Our Park’s free nine-week Couch to Fitness program which was created in response to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Specifically designed to reach diverse communities, lower socio-economic groups and those living with long term health conditions and disabilities, the on-demand program helps people build confidence in their ability to be active from home. The program was funded by Sport England and built on insights into the deep-rooted inequalities that persist in sport and physical activity.
Sport England’s 2021 activity survey revealed that 52% of Black adults and 48% of Asians met physical activity guidelines between May 2020 and May 2021 as compared to 61% of the whole population. Additionally, a gender activity gap persists as fewer women than men are physically active. Many factors contribute to this inequity including financial challenges and access to sports in deprived areas.
“Couch to Fitness has been a game-changer for our mission to make physical activity accessible to everyone, allowing us to remove more of the barriers that stop people getting started,” said Born Barikor, founder of Our Parks. “This report highlights our journey in creating a digital intervention that truly resonates with those who need it most. We hope it encourages others to explore similar strategies and helps to close the gap in access and opportunity for underserved communities.”
The partners report that users have made significant positive changes in their activity levels, anxiety and self-efficiency. Based on these results, the report includes practical and creative ideas for building and promoting a digital offering for underserved communities to get active. This includes engaging and getting constant feedback from users to ensure a meaningful experience and evaluating current offerings to align more with objectives.
It also suggests recommends implementing behavior-change models such as COM-B to provide a basis for messaging to ensure campaigns are insight-led and applying learnings throughout the campaign lifecycle to maintain relevancy. This behavioral framework informs understanding of people’s attitudes toward physical activity to understand why some people are more active than others.
Starting October 15, Couch to Fitness is running several sessions to discuss the “lessons learned on engaging underserved communities digitally.” All are encouraged to read the tips from the report “whether you work in directly in sport and physical activity, the charity or volunteer sector, healthcare or marketing.”
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