Active Rastrick Winter Celebration

In December 2025, partners from across the Rastrick community gathered for a special Winter Celebration Event at The Space @ Field Lane. The event brought together a wide range of local organisations that are all playing their part in helping people across Rastrick move more and live healthier lives.

A community coming together

Located at the heart of the Field Lane estate, The Space @ Field Lane sits within an area that is a key focus for the Active Calderdale approach. The Winter Celebration Event formed part of the quarterly “We’re All Active Rastrick” partnership, where local services and community groups meet to share ideas, celebrate successes and look at how they can work better together.

On the day, representatives from a variety of organisations attended, including teams from Green Spaces & Street Scene, Public Health, Adult Social Care, Family Support Services, the Staying Well Service and the Social Prescribing Link Worker Service. They were joined by valued community partners such as Rastrick Bowling Club, St John's Church, St Matthew's Church, Friends of Rastrick Library, Culturedale, and the Neighbourhoods Service.

The event highlighted how improving physical activity across a community is not the responsibility of a single organisation. Instead, it takes a whole-system approach, where different services and groups contribute in their own way.

Inspiring examples of local action

One of the key aims of the event was to celebrate the work already happening across Rastrick and to inspire others to think about how they might incorporate physical activity into what they do.

A great example came from St Matthew's Church, which has expanded its community offer to include activities such as Pilates, Indoor Kurling and Bowls. With support from Active Calderdale, the project now helps around 40 people each week to stay active while connecting with others in their community.

Meanwhile, The Space @ Field Lane shared how they continue to support local residents through a wide range of opportunities to move more. These include exercise classes, group walks, lunchtime activities and their commitment to funding their own Active Champion role, helping to keep physical activity firmly on the agenda within the community.

Supporting people to be active

The celebration also recognised that creating an active community isn’t just about running activities. It is equally important to support and encourage people to take part.

Services such as the Staying Well Service, Family Support Services and Adult Health & Social Care shared how they are increasingly building conversations about physical activity into their everyday work. Whether that means encouraging someone to try a local class, walking with them to their first session, or simply helping them explore what activities might suit them best, these small actions can make a big difference.

Making the environment more active

Partners also highlighted other projects helping to make Rastrick a place where being active feels easy and enjoyable. This includes improvements to local parks and green spaces, as well as community initiatives like the popular Rastrick Riddle Challenge, which encourages residents to explore their neighbourhood while staying active.

Building stronger partnerships

As well as celebrating achievements, the two-hour event provided valuable time for partners to connect, share ideas and strengthen relationships. By bringing together organisations from across different sectors, the event helped reinforce the importance of collaboration and continuous improvement in creating healthier communities.

Reflecting on the event, Public Health Practitioner Anthony Whittaker said:

“This event was a fantastic occasion to showcase and celebrate the commitment local organisations have taken to improving the lives of local people through promoting physical activity. We saw how all different system areas are playing their part in creating the conditions required to make it easy and attractive for local people to be active.

What was also interesting was how those organisations who maybe haven't been as engaged in the past commented on how inspired they felt from the event, taking away ideas for their own projects.”

Looking ahead

The Winter Celebration Event was a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when organisations come together with a shared goal. By continuing to build partnerships, support local assets and encourage more conversations about movement, the Active Rastrick partnership is helping to make it easier for people across the community to be active in ways that work for them.