Active Angels
To provide an opportunity for semi sporty teenage girls in danger of disengagement to participate in activities in a supportive environment.
About You
Contact Information
Title
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First name
Jo
Last name
McKenzie
Your job title
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Name of your organization
The London Playing Fields Foundation
Organization type
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Annual budget/currency
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Location
Project Street Address
135 Wadham Road
Project City
London
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
E17 4HR
Project Country
United Kingdom
Your idea
Choose your sport: (check all that apply)
Fitness
If you chose "other" for Sport, please define in 1-2 words below
What approach does your initiative incorporate?
Services
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2005
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Plot your innovation within the discovery framework:
Barrier
Girls internalize cultural stereotypes
Insight
Make the first step easier
This field has not been completed. (333 words or less)
Name Your Project
Active Angels
Describe Your Idea
To provide an opportunity for semi sporty teenage girls in danger of disengagement to participate in activities in a supportive environment.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
To provide an opportunity for semi sporty teenage girls in danger of disengagement to participate in activities in a supportive environment.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?
Over the first three years of the project Active Angels engaged with 382 teenage girls. Phase 2 will see Active Angels rolled out across Waltham Forest and spread into each sub region of London with the help of the Pro Active Directors. Club Angels will be created in Waltham Forest as a pilot project to extend the project to provision for the 16-18 year age group. It will reach an estimated 1450 girls over the next three years.
Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.
As a small charity The London Playing Fields Foundation does not have the capacity to deliver social inclusion projects on its own. It relies on working with partners who are recognized experts in their field. Active Angels is managed by a Steering Group comprising partners from the local authority (Healthy School Co-ordinator, Sports Development), locals schools (School Sports Partnership), leisure providers (Greenwich Leisure Limited), health sector (Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust) and training providers (Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme). Through quarterly meetings with these partners the project programme is planned and its progress monitored. Partners have delivered healthy lifestyle workshops and offered discounted gym passes to participants to add value to the existing provision.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The recruitment of girls is coordinated through the School Sports Partnerships who identify and refer “semi-sporty” pupils. The Project Coordinator makes termly presentations within school assemblies and classes. Participants also volunteer to act as Ambassadors to promote the project to their peers. Year 11 participants are mentored to ensure that they are aware of the opportunities to stay engaged in physical activity that are available to them when they leave school. Through engaging with the girls in a school environment, but delivering activity in a community setting, a strong “school to community” link has been established. By encouraging participation at an early age it is envisaged that this pattern of regular physical activity will be sustained into adulthood.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact
To provide an alternative way of engendering a healthy lifestyle where the emphasis is on having fun, being active and raising self esteem.
What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation
• Some girls are more physically adept and have displayed better co-ordination and agility.
• Teachers have reported that participation in Active Angels has had a beneficial impact on the activity levels in PE lessons which have increased.
• The girls’ perceptions of the benefits of physical activity have improved following their involvement in the programme
• There has been evidence of increased levels of confidence and self-esteem
• Girls have used the concessionary passes offered by Greenwich Leisure to make additional visits to the gym in their own time.
Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?
To engage with semi sporty pupils and sustain their participation in physical activity the project highlights the need for a more flexible, informal and participant-led programme of activity. There is a need to provide an alternative to the traditional performance-focused club experience in order to engage the target audience.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?
The aim of Phase 2 is to expand Active Angels as a model of best practice and promote it to each London borough as an effective tool for engaging with teenage girls. LPFF will be working with the Pro Active Partnerships to target the most appropriate providers. A toolkit and support package has been developed to facilitate easy implementation by each provider.
The programme will also provide activity for girls via a multisport club which would have a committee comprised of project participants
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The initial three year project received funding from Active England, a stream of the Big Lottery Fund. Currently the project is being financed by the local authority’s Youth Support Service. Applications for funding for Phase 2 have currently been submitted.
Financing source
Annual budget
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Annual revenue generated
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Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
Part-time Activity Coordinator
6 coaches to deliver the biweekly activity sessions
8 volunteers will be involved in the delivery of Club Angels
What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?
Applying for funding is very competitive. We will meet this challenge by applying to a number of funders for smaller amounts rather than one large grant.
What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?
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The Story
What stage is your project?
Ongoing project .
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.
This field has not been completed. (1500 characters or less)London Playing Fields Foundation, as a provider of sports facilities, was aware that there was an inequality in the demand for its sports pitches from women. It was also recognized that for both men and women nationally there is a significant drop in participation levels after 16 years of age. LPFF decided to create a project to address both these issues. In order to assess the demand for such a project it consulted with local partners. It was during this consultation phase that the Head Teacher of a local secondary school suggested that urgent steps needed to be taken to address the inactivity levels of 14 – 16 year old girls. Subsequent meetings with the Primary Care Trust reinforced the need for an initiative to encourage teenage girls to increase their activity levels as part of adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative
Alex Welsh, London Playing Fields Foundation’s Chief Executive, has developed several projects which have engaged “hard to reach groups” in physical activity. Working for the Foundation for twenty years, Alex has linked with local agencies to ensure the sustainable delivery of projects for women and girls, groups from BAME communities and adults with mental illness. These projects have always been at the vanguard of sports development and Alex’s vision and commitment have ensured their success
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 | 172 weeks agodominique blaize said: Hi, I was just wondering if you keep in contact with the girls once they have left school, seeing if they are still participating in ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 175 weeks agoKevin Carroll said: Thanks for providing a bit of the backstory for the program's design/creation, Katherine. That's great that the young ladies were ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 175 weeks agoJo McKenzie said: Hi Kevin, Active Angels works because the girls had a lot of input in designing the programme. At the start we asked them if they ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 175 weeks agoJo McKenzie said: Hi Stephani, The Steering Group is incredibly important to the success of this project and provides a mix of practical support and ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 175 weeks agoJo McKenzie said: Hi Aykan, Yes we see this project as totally replicable. Phase 1 of the project was a pilot. We were then able to develop a toolkit ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 177 weeks agoKevin Carroll said: Hello Active Angels, I just had the chance to review your idea and visit your website - I really think you have a program that has ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 179 weeks agoStephani Kobayashi Stevenson said: Hi Active Angels, This is great and I'm sure greatly needed as physical activity levels drop in places such as the US and as I just ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 179 weeks agoaykan gulten said: Hi, Thanks for posting. I gladly read your project. You are touching quite a lot of people's life. My question is that, do you see ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 180 weeks agoJo McKenzie submitted this idea. |
