Active Calderdale wants to better understand the lives of Calderdale residents and how they interact, connect with and relate to the people and organisations around them. They are particularly interested in exploring people’s attitudes and motivations towards physical activity. Through storytelling, they hope to understand how people can become more active in different ways that have a meaningful and positive impact on people’s overall lives. 

As part of this project, People’s Voice Media worked with local Community Reporters to hold a short workshop to listen to stories from local people and identify things we can learn from them about what motivates people to be active and what gets in the way. The stories were gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the key learnings identified in the session were:

1. People who had been shielding/isolating during the pandemic may feel reluctant or anxious about leaving home – support and understanding is needed to help people work through this.
2. Winter is a particularly challenging time to ‘get out’ and exercise. Darker evenings and colder weather means that people are more likely to stay indoors.
3. Keeping active is easier when you are doing it alongside people – the social side and encouragement from others makes it a better experience.
4. The pandemic has stopped a lot of sports and exercise activities. This means that people have been used to being less active and therefore encouragement back into activity is key.
5. We are all influencers… we all have the power to encourage those around us to be more active. Trust is also important – when there is a relationship of trust, people are more likely to be positively influenced by that person and join them in different activities. This can build people’s confidence in trying new things.

The stories we looked at in the session were from the health inequalities work current taking place in Calderdale that is being led by VAC. They can all be viewed here.