City Council partners with the Outdoor Guide on Go Walks initiative, offering free health and well-being support to communities
Coventry City Council is aiming to help local residents and families get to know their area, improve their well-being and improve stronger communities – just by getting them walking.
Photo by Juliane Liebermann / Unsplash
The new Go Walks initiative has been developed in partnership with the team behind free online resource the Outdoor Guide, co-founded by TV presenter Julia Bradbury. The team are passionate about the value of a healthy life outdoors and have built up a national network of walks across the UK, in cities and well as the countryside.
Now they’ve developed a series of walks based around Coventry’s family hubs, which already provide welcoming, safe places for children, young people and families to enjoy fun activities, build friendships and access services and support. The walks are available online and as paper copies, which can be collected from the hubs.
The initiative is part of the council’s wider ‘Child Friendly Cov’ project to help children and young people be and feel healthy. The walks link each family hub to nearby green spaces, such as parks and woodland. The walks also highlight other facilities in the community such as social supermarkets, food banks, drop-in centres, places of worship, medical centres and primary schools.
Residents will get to know their area and its facilities better. The walks are also a great introduction to the city for new arrivals.
There are nine new walks in total, with two based around the Wood Side Family Hub, and one each for the hubs at Pathways, Park Edge, Mosaic, The Moat, Harmony, Families for All and Aspire. One of the Wood Side walks is accessible and suitable all year, the other better suited to dry weather and people on foot.
Eight of the walks are about the same length, comprising some 5,000 steps each, but the Pathways one is longer.
The walks have been launched to coincide with the Easter holidays. A special celebration event will be held at the Moat family hub on April 25, with guest of honour Gemma Hunt, the children’s TV present and ambassador for the Outdoor Guide Foundation.
Gina Bradbury Fox, founder of the Outdoor Guide, says: ‘We are delighted to be working with Coventry City Council on this exciting new project. Our ethos is to enable more and more people to spend time outside and become active. The areas the walks cover have some amazing green spaces – you’d be forgiven at times for not realising you’re so close to the heart of the city!’
Cllr Patricia Seaman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People at Coventry City Council, adds: ‘Our family hubs are a fantastic success. Really bringing people and organisations together and revealing just how much support there is for families right in the heart of so many communities in our city. Now, with new Go Walks, there are even more reasons to visit your local hub, get some fresh air, enjoy our green spaces and discover more about your neighbourhood.’
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