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Sheffield's least healthy communities shape up to better health with a little help from their friends
27th January 2009
Sheffield’s unhealthiest communities are getting ready for a work out this week after the launch of a city-wide scheme, where local residents will support each other to improve their health.
The recruitment of Sheffield’s first ‘Health Champions’ has already begun. They are volunteers from Sheffield’s least healthy communities, who are passionate about improving the health and well-being of their neighbours.
Their role will include helping people eat better, be more physically active, improve their mental health, and generally provide ongoing practical and moral support to encourage people to be healthier.
A trained and supported network of 77 Health Champions will be recruited between now and September. Each champion will work for 100 hours over 6 months to support 15 people in the community. Two thousand seven hundred local people will be helped to improve their health by a total of 180 champions between now and September 2011.
NHS Sheffield, Sheffield First Health and Well-Being Partnership and the newly formed, Sheffield Well-Being Consortium are working together to deliver the scheme which has received key funding through the Big Lottery Well-being Fund.
The Consortium is made up of 44 local voluntary and community organisations. Five of its member organisations made it through the selection process and will deliver the first phase of the project to help to promote the Health Champions scheme and provide support to volunteers. Other member organisations will join in the next phase.
Some of the first Health Champion recruits, who are expected to be working with local residents by March, will be graduates of NHS Sheffield’s Introduction to Community Development and Health (ICDH) course.
Lauren White, 20, from Aston, took the ICDH course and has signed up to become a Health Champion. She said: “I find it really rewarding to work in a community setting because you’re able to give something back to a community as a whole as oppose to individuals.
“I’ve always been interested in working in the health sector so I’m really looking forward to this fantastic opportunity.”
Nigel West, Sheffield Well-Being Consortium’s Health Champions Project Co-ordinator, said: “Local people will be able to identify what the health problems are in their area and have good, practical and effective ideas on the best way to tackle these.
“By using voluntary / community groups within the Consortium that already work in these areas we hope to be able offer tailored support and guidance for all the Health Champions.”
NHS Sheffield hopes that around 40 per cent of Health Champions will go on to get jobs in health care and continue work to reduce health inequalities in the city.
Elaine Goddard, Community Development and Health Manager for NHS Sheffield, said: “We have an important role to play in this project through the training of the first wave of champions, and providing key information of where health inequalities are a big issue.
“Health Champions will be given the training and support they need to empower their friends, family and wider community to live healthier lifestyles.”
Anyone interested in becoming a Health Champion should contact Nigel West at Sheffield Well Being Consortium on 0114 275 4467 or 07856 911578 or email nigel@sheffieldwellbeing.org.uk
The Health Champions will be helping to deliver the Change4Life campaign in Sheffield, to help people to eat well, move more and live longer.
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