“If physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure, due to the great many illnesses it can prevent and help treat.”
That’s an old quote from the UK’s chief medical officers, but it still applies today. Physical activity and movement can improve health at every stage of life, make children better prepared to learn and more people able to work. This reduces the strain on the NHS and boosts the economy.
And more than that, it can build connections and communities and bring people together.
Move and be physically active however works for you
Moving more doesn’t mean being an Olympian, a Lioness or a Red Rose, it means being physically active in whatever way works best for you. However that looks, we’re here to help.
For 25 years we’ve been supporting partners and communities in the North East get more active. Through collaboration, each year we learn more about the challenges facing people and how to catalyse the changes needed to overcome them.
Here’s just some of what we achieved last year
It’s published in our 2024/25 impact report.
- We’ve given hundreds of medical students training within their first semester to improve shared knowledge and understanding and provide first-hand experience of physical activity prescription.
- In collaboration with primary care colleagues, we’ve successfully embedded a sustainable, activity-based, proactive solution into their practice. Our new activity and wellbeing coach sits within the multi-disciplinary team.
- Our work with communities and local partners to understand and address specific local issues has gone from strength to strength across all our place-based working from Berwick to South Tyneside to Gateshead and Newcastle.
- Our targeted programmes have reached thousands of children to improve physical activity, school readiness and support academic and health outcomes – focusing on breaking down barriers for children, young people, families and practitioners to reduce inequalities for our most underserved communities.
- Delivering targeted inclusive, needs-led physical activity opportunities designed to meet the needs of children, young people and families, we distributed over £1million in the final year of our Opening School Facilities funding cycle, bringing the total to 87 schools support and exceeding our target.
- As a leader, advocate and catalyst, we give guidance in planning, community engagement and delivery oversight and we’ve co-ordinated the convening of regional PlayZone leads to align strategy, share insight, and strengthen consistency across implementation.
- Within everything we do, we gather and share evidence, insight and community voice around what works, and what doesn’t, to help the organisation and our partners to understand how to use physical activity to meet their objectives.
Find out more
Read our impact report for the full story.
If you’d like to collaborate and help us catalyse change, or just want a chat, get in touch.
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