Active Lancashire - Challenge Through Sport Initiative and More Positive Together

About The Challenge Through Sport Initiative

The Challenge Through Sport Initiative (CSI) programme has been running very successfully now for 7 years across Lancashire.

It is a bespoke behaviour change programme for people who need to build up their resilience to substance misuse. This includes working with:

• ex-offenders
• those with Mental Health issues (especially Dual Diagnosis)
• gambling addictions
• homeless
• friends and families as well.

The CSI key focus is to engage and mentor those people who are often in poor mental and physical health into physical activity and sport to improve their long-term health and economic lifestyles. Key impacts have been a marked reduction in readmission to specialist health services and increased levels of employment in the target group.

CSI have a very simple model that supports other specialist agencies, and the programme is led by support workers who themselves have lived experience and have become role models through engaging in the CSI Programme. They started as participants, moved on to be volunteers, received training and when the opportunities arose, they were offered employment on the CSI Programme. They are extremely passionate and motivated about what they do because they believe in it. They have a wealth of experience and knowledge that helps them to signpost participants to other agencies to support their individual needs enabling us to work together.

The activities are all varied depending on what participants want. For sustainable and added benefit to the community the activities are linked in with local community centres, gyms/clubs etc because a percentage of the participants move on to become members or attend other sessions within the community.

Participants are encouraged to engage their families and friends in activities to help support them but to also encourage them to become active. This creates a butterfly effect impacting on others around them and improving their mental and physical wellbeing and way of life.

Over the 7 years CSI have engaged with just over 6500 new participants and over 450 peer support volunteers. Key impacts have been a marked reduction in readmission to specialist health services, helping to reduce reoffending, improving people's economic lifestyles and increased levels of employment in the target group. 

Positive Fact

CSI statistics show that people mentored by our CSI Support Workers and who engage in our activities that are working with other services, are more likely to complete their treatment, group sessions, workshops etc.

Projects under CSI

• NewYou
• United Together
• Young People Forward
• Crime and Harm Reduction.

More than just getting active

The Challenge through Sport Initiative provides much more than a way of getting active.

For participants the project is an opportunity to engage in activities within their community and importantly, can allow them to develop a new support network, motivating them to lead a healthier and happier life.

Active Lancashire experience of leading a variety of programmes tells us that with increased physical activity comes an increase in self-confidence, which impacts greatly on self esteem and in turn, is hugely influential in creating a positive outcome for the recovery process.

In fact, many of the participants go on to consider further developing their personal skills through volunteering on the programme themselves.

Development route to employment

We have designed CSI to provide a development route to employability. Participants who attend regularly and demonstrate reliability are given the opportunity to volunteer on the project.

Volunteers are put through a formal induction process where they receive on-going training to help them develop their confidence levels and take a lead in delivering activities. In this way, Active Lancashire provide them with a bedrock of teamworking and leadership skills that they can ultimately take with them into the workplace.

The Challenge through Sport initiative has an excellent track record of success and thus has expanded over the years to cover many districts across Lancashire, in partnership with a number of other organisations.

About More Positive Together (MPT)

More Positive Together (MPT) is a Lancashire wide project that aims to help residents of some of the County's most deprived areas improve their skills and employment prospects.

The project is part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) growth programme in England, and brings together a range of partners such as housing associations, local authorities and third sector organisations to provide practical help and mentoring support to project participants.

The More Positive Together project provides a range of opportunities for personal development such as participation in environmental and arts activities, training programmes to establish new skills or access to valuable work experience opportunities, through a number of external agencies such as mental health organisations, training providers and activity providers.

In addition to managing the MPT project, Active Lancashire has also developed a wellbeing offer for the benefit of project participants.

The offer has been developed to encourage engagement in sport and physical activity to improve health and well being, build confidence and engage in positive social interactions. The wellbeing offer includes:

• Family Activity Packs - A selection of different sporting equipment is available to all families who register, complete with guidance around different indoor and outdoor activities for the whole family
• Cycle Recycle - A partnership scheme set up with Lancashire County Council Waste Management, Lancashire County Council Access Team and ourselves, the scheme allows for unwanted bikes to be renovated through a workshop, participants get to learn key skills around bike maintenance, as well as also getting to keep the bike at the end of the workshop
• Volunteering - For those participants who are ready to take on more responsibility, we have developed a volunteering offer to encourage development of valuable team leadership skills and offer other participants the benefits of peer mentoring

The More Positive Together participants review their progress as the journey through the programme unfolds, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of the project.

About Active Lancashire

Active Lancashire's expertise in leading diverse and multi skilled partnerships is the driving force behind the More Positive Together project.

Operating throughout the Lancashire region, Active Lancashire have organised partners into smaller localised groups covering the Pendle, Central Lancashire, West Lancashire and Coastal areas. Active Lancashire then facilitate a number of regional meetings with project leads from each partner operating in that area.

Active Lancashire unique approach means that partners work alongside other similar companies in their field, collaborating and developing best practice techniques to support residents and help them improve their lives.

Through this proven, highly effective method Active Lancashire enable partners to provide a focused support package to their local residents, starting with allocating a dedicated mentor who makes a personal needs assessment and develops an action plan to help overcome any barriers to employment.