Get Walking Keep Walking partnered up with Cheetham Community School for 6 weeks. Each week we walked a different route through Cheetham Hill and each walk had a different theme, these included safety, nature, fun and adventure. The children had a task to do every week and wore their step counters to see how many steps they could do. One of the most popular tasks was taking photographs with our Get Walking cameras. The children were asked to take photos of a number of differnt things that they saw and did on the walk and the emphasis was on sharing the cameras and their walking experiences with their friends. Get Walking would like to thank the children from Year 2 at Cheetham Community School and especially Miss Taylor and Miss Ayub for their support.

We brought along some of our new children’s materials called “Trail Tales” which we use to make the walking experience fun, and interactive! Trail Tales consiss of a story books, stickers, masks and a log book all housed in a handy carry case. Each of the stories explore a different theme such as Walking to be Heathly, Walking for Safety or Walking with Family and Friends. We start each session with a story and then give the children an activity to take part in during the walk. For example with the Walking to be Green theme the children were asked to collect things that are natural and not man-made on their walk. After the walk they used the things they found to make a nature corner in their classroom!

We think Trail Tales went down a treat – this little collage proves it too!

Chalte Chalte is literally translated as walking walking, and is also the name of a famous Hindi film. This helped inspire a number of women to come and join the walking group. We were also joined by staff and people who use the BlueSCI Social and Cultural Inclusion service.

We went on 4 led walks that took us to Salford Quays, Seymour, Hullard and Longford Parks and the former GMB College which is soon to be the largest Muslim heritage centre in the country.

After the 4 week programme of led walks, the group decided that they wanted to continue and enjoy the benefits from regular walking. Every Wednesday since October the Chalte Chalte group have continued to go out walking with the help of Elaine, a Get Walking volunteer. At the end of February, Trafford’s STRIDE walking scheme will train some of the ladies to become volunteer walk leaders so that they can run the walking group themselves.

One of the ladies from the walking group enthusiastically told me, “This group is great, I have met new people and enjoyed getting out of the house. I have even started to notice that I don’t need my inhaler so much”.

Jen worked closely with Alya Rafiq and Yasmine Dar from the South Asian Mental Health Team to make sure that the group was widely promoted within the local community and that the ladies were supported and encouraged to take part.

Alya told us, “I’ve really enjoyed working with Get Walking, they provided all the publicity material and designed and led all the routes. Every week we had fresh fruit and bottles of water and Jen and the volunteers made every session fun and informative”.

Alison, a Parent from Whalley Range, commented

“ We are used to getting together with the kids indoors at toddler groups and other places so the Get Walking group was unique in that it got us outside as a group enjoying walking, fresh air, change of scene which was very energising and the children loved it especially feeding ducks and collecting leaves. The walks and activities were organised very well. In the Autumn we enjoyed the conkers and trees changing colour and we even enjoyed the rain showers sheltering under the big trees in the park. It’s really encouraged me to walk more, and pushing a buggy is a great way of keeping fit!”

Darren Shearer, Outreach worker at Whalley Range Sure Start says:

“I think the great thing about the group is that it got parents and children out walking together.  Walking is so easy to do and best of all it is free! It really helped me as a worker, because it gave me the chance to talk to the parents away from the centre and really get to know them a bit more and get a good grasp of what they wanted from a walking group!“

“We have succeeded in encouraging more South Asian women in the community to walk to improve their mental health and well being… the women have found the experience empowering and it has developed their sense of confidence.”

Despite our project being based around a relatively short 12-week intervention, the work on this project shows lasting success – Shaz now works closely with Get Walking in Manchester to promote walking to everyone in the area as a Community Champion.

Useful Links

Contact our Get Walking team in Manchester

The Roby Centre website

“It was very helpful and supportive to have regular contact with staff and volunteers. We are kept up to date with local information about further walks in the area” - Sister Jean John, founder of the centre.

Running led walks programmes is just part of what we can offer, get in touch to see how Get Walking can work with your group or organisation.

Useful Links

Contact the East London Get Walking team

Wayside Community Centre