Staying healthy and growing and cooking food on Blackbird Leys
2
The Pitch
Problem statement
Blackbird Leys is an area of Oxford which appears on the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation. In particular 3 out of our 4 LSOs are are in the lowest 10% in the country for educational skills and attainment. Many adults have few or any educational qualifications and so are not confident enough in their own ability to change their way of life. Our obesity level is too high especially our statistics for children leaving junior schools .We notice that too often families go to fast food outlets rather than cooking their own healthy food. We are enabling children to have the confidence in themselves. We want to help the whole family to enjoy this new confidence too.
Solution
We are aiming to provide a place where children and their families can have fun, relax and learn easy ways to improve their health and well being. After school each day children(8 -13 years) enjoy good food and lots of exercise. Once a month, on a Saturday, we invite families in to enjoy all the facilities. They share great food and physical challenges. We would like to extend our work so that the families can enjoy a wider choice of food, learn to garden with their children, enjoy exercising together and visits out. We know we are making an impact with the children. We now want to work with children and their families so the impact can be greater
Why are we best placed to deliver?
For years we have been active on the estate. Our Children in Need funding expects us to evidence our outcomes. We are looking for an understanding of healthy living (food and exercise) and an understanding of the importance of being kind and responsible. We use various methods to record observations of individual improvements and then translate this into reliable statistics Children and family work is growing and there is good communication and a happy atmosphere so we believe children and families will be helped. Children instinctive play and exercise, love cooking and gardening. Parents seeing their children so happily involved will encourage families to join in.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Gardening costs Eater butt (200 litres) and downpipe connections £100 Adult gardening equipment,(forks, spades secateurs and gloves £150) Fruit trees seeds, fetiliser etc £150 | £400 |
| Trips out for the families to encourage joint healthy exercise e.g. ice skating and hire of skates and bus fare would cost £58080 | £750 |
| Food to include more choice.At present on Saturdays we offer one meal but Vegetarian options. To increase healthy choice options and chance for families to cook together | £500 |
| The facilities are designed for 8 - 13 year olds. We need to provide more equipment for adults e.g adult sized rounders bats, skipping ropes.mats to make it eassier for everyone to play together, | £350 |
Beneficiaries
200 people
Who will benefit
Expected impact
1 An increase in involvement of families working together and getting involved. We will measure this by observation, comments made by families and by questionnaires2 An increase in parent confidence to ask for help in a safe environment. We will record these incidents but anonymise any reporting.3 An increase in mutual self help amongst families- staff will observe and record this- it will also be evident in questionnaires -though we will probably refer to it as "how many friendships have developed through the sessions?"4 An increase in active involvement by all members of the family in active challenges -observations recorded by staff in charge of these will allow us to see the increase5 An increased interest in gardening and cooking food Again recorded through questionnaires and observations.
Track record
We have been used to writing reports for funders and impact measurement is also important for us too. It helps us see where we are making a difference and where there are issues we need to think through Children in Need courses on impact measurement are helpful as are local courses. We are used to making a note of comments by parents and children that we transfer on to children's individual record sheets. Staff share their own observations at regular meetings. These meetings also encourage staff to recognise the differences they are making by the encouragement they give these children. We also regularly use picture based questionnaires. At the end of the recent half term holiday work we were able to record the number of different activities each child has been involved in with a picture based sheet. We will use these skills to look at the outcome of our work with children and families and be able to share anecdotal and statistical evidence of the impact we are having.