What was Healthy Pompey?
In 2008 Portsmouth successfully bid for £3.1 million of funding from the Department of Health to become one of nine ‘Healthy Towns’ in England as part of the Government’s drive to tackle rising levels of obesity. The funding was awarded to run a three-year programme (2008-2011) to promote active lifestyles and healthy eating, this became known as Healthy Pompey.
Portsmouth was the only recipient of funding in the south east, sharing the total pot of £30 million with Calderdale, Manchester, Thetford, Tower Hamlets, Dudley, Middlesbrough, Tewkesbury and Sheffield.
The Healthy Pompey programme focussed on four main areas that were: Food & Health, City Growing, Active Travel and Social Enterprise (community cafes). The whole programme is being evaluated and the findings from this research were published in September 2011.
When the funding bid was made for the Healthy Pompey programme, by NHS Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council, people were already focusing well beyond 2011. Sustainability of projects and long-term behaviour change underpinned everything that was proposed.
Thanks to this planning, very few of the Healthy Pompey projects finished when the funding period ended. The majority are able to continue due to the commitment of a wide range of organisations and individual volunteers.
Many of the city growing sites are still up and running and for information about how you could get involved in growing food in Portsmouth click here
The sustainable transport team are still working hard to encourage people to get active by walking and cycling and there are some bike recycling sites operating at various venues throughout the city. For more information on bike recycling click here and for information on walking and cycling around Portsmouth click here.
You can also visit our getting active pages if you need some ideas on sport or exercise activities happening in your part of Portsmouth.
The pre-school challenge set up as part of the Healthy Pompey programme is going strong. If you would like information about how your pre-school can sign up to the challenge or more information about the support and training we can give to people working in pre-schools please send an email by clicking here
Research shows that the place where children have lunch can have an effect on the type of food eaten, so we were also involved with creating pleasant dining environments using fruit and vegetables in designing the new decor is the idea behind edible images. Seven infant or junior schools across the city have taken part in the art and health project led by artists from Dot-to-Dot and a food & health worker from the Healthy Pompey team. Workshops were run with children to design and create the artwork used to improve dining room decor and a celebratory launch event was held at each school to open the new dining environment.
Yellow Kite is operating as a Social Enterprise and the cafes at Southsea Castle and the D-Day Museum are open for business. The wedding and events catering side of the business is also up and running and more information can be found at www.yellowkite.org.uk
A report outlining the projects in more detail is available to download here or copies can be requested by emailing enquiries@hids.org.uk
The programme evaluation for Portsmouth, seeking to measure the effectiveness of individual projects and the subsequent changes in participants’ attitudes and behaviour, was published in September 2011. It is now for organisations in the city, led by the Healthy Weight Strategy Group, to take forward the findings to ensure that the people of Portsmouth continue to be supported in making healthier lifestyle choices to secure a lasting legacy for Healthy Pompey.
The Healthy Towns South East conference was hosted by Healthy Pompey on the 21st September 2011. Supported by the DH South East, the event aimed to share the key findings from the evaluation as well as the highlights from the three year programme. The conference was held at Southsea Castle which is the new home of Yellow Kite - the social enterprise that was created as part of the programme. (For more information visit www.yellowkite.org.uk ).
There were a range of speakers and presentations are available to download below:
Paul Edmondson Jones, Director of Public Health: Setting the scene
Clare Hencken, Bodymorph: Healthy Pompey evaluation
Gamini Wijesinghe, Middlesbrough Healthy Towns: Middlesbrough Healthy Towns
