Council awarded $10K Heart Foundation grant to encourage community to get active
City of Salisbury has been awarded one of 10 grants offered by the Heart Foundation towards the development of projects that encourage communities to improve their health through physical activity.
The $10,000 in funding will be used by Council to deliver a new program Be Active – Find Your WHY, which is aimed at community members aged over 50 by increasing awareness of opportunities to get active and motivating them to increase their level of physical activity.
The program will be delivered with support from the University of South Australia and feature a number of key activities including;
- A series of postcards that feature local people sharing the details of how and why they stay active
- Hands on sessions to support community members to identify their ‘why’ and complete their own postcard
- Wellbeing expo – a fun day featuring speakers on key topics, displays and activities
- Come and try sessions for everything from contemporary dancing to using the adult fitness equipment
- One-on-one coaching sessions with an exercise physiologist for those finding it tough to incorporate more activity into their lives.
Mayor Gillian Aldridge OAM said she was proud that Salisbury’s project was selected as the only South Australian recipient, out of a national pool of more than 300 applications to the Heart Foundation for funding from schools, universities and community organisations.
We know that more than half of Australia’s population is not meeting the recommended guidelines for daily physical activity and programs such as Be Active – Find Your WHY aim to change that at a local community level.
Council is excited to play a role in helping older community members break down some of those common barriers that can mean we don’t move as much as we would like to in our busy lives.
Council will launch the program in 2023 with updates to be provided here.