Active Calderdale has recently supported local organisation Active Rainbow, to deliver a series of workshops in the Lower Calder Valley. These workshops were developed to allow volunteers and staff from local community settings to be trained to deliver physical activities for their members. This training has helped to ensure that many community settings that usually involve sitting for long periods, can now be transformed into active sessions.
The inspiration for the project came from Active Calderdale's Lower Valley Community Project Manager, Anthony Whittaker.
Identifying the Rainbow
Following on from Anthony's initial idea, consultations took place with local groups to see whether they would value this form of training and the feedback was positive. Active Calderdale had already built up a network of organisations in the Lower Valley which meant it was easy to identify an experienced organisation to deliver the training in Active Rainbow, as well as the many community groups who could benefit. The training was then rolled out across Calderdale.
One of the groups who took part in the training were volunteers at Chit Chat Group, Elland. Pam Lawton, a volunteer at the group, and Win Theaker, a founder and volunteer, gave their thoughts on their involvement:
Looking to the Future
In the following months, Active Calderdale will look to assess the impact of the training and, if there is a necessity for future sessions, train more local people to deliver physical activity sessions to their groups.
If you would like more information on how you can deliver physical activity sessions to your organisations or group e-mail us at activecalderdale@calderdale.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can download the Play Your Part booklet here or browse our resource page for further inspiration.