It’s an interesting question and one that I get asked quite a lot especially when I attend community or network meetings / events.

 

Many have now heard of Energize - which is good - and they know that we are something to do with sport / active lives and that we are a charity / community/voluntary organisation - but they often don’t totally understand what we do.

 

It would be easy if we provided sports coaching or managed facilities where you can play sport and get active.  But we don’t.

 

Sometimes - quite often actually - they imagine that we organise sports events for schools - and we do certainly work a lot with schools and community providers to encourage children and young people to be more active.  But we do much more than this.

 

Our mission gives a clue as we aim to improve lives using the power of physical activity and sport.  And in recent years we have tried to focus on those who are least active.  We know this is where the greatest benefits and gains are.

 

But what we know about the least active is that they have an inactive behaviour for many reasons - much of which will be down to their environment.  So at Energize we work alongside a wide range of partners involved in the design and delivery of physical activity and sport. Our work is less ‘hands on’ and more about understanding people and how we might encourage a change in their physical behaviour and habits. So we are not so much the girls in the tracksuits or the guys in lycra…we’re the ones learning about what motivates people and the affect that place has on lifestyle habits.  And then working with local partners to apply that learning.

 

Increasingly we are the team encouraging small changes to your daily routine – walking the long way round, taking the stairs, sitting less. Because we believe that for the least active people, small steps can deliver big impact.

 

For some, regular movement is an embedded habit, but with nearly 120,00 adults categorised as physically inactive locally, it’s clear that many don’t have the time, inclination or ability to change without help. We need to find new, more creative ways to encourage active lifestyles.

 

We are funded by a range of organisations and we do provide advice to sport and physical activity providers but probably our main funder is Sport England and they have particularly asked us to work with new organisations - who can help us reach those most likely to be inactive and also those most likely to benefit from a more active lifestyle.

 

If this is you why not get in touch?  You might find us to be just the spark you were looking for?