Sweat in the City
This project's parent organization is Sport Roehampton
It operates in United Kingdom
It uses Multiple sports
Entered the
More about Sweat in the City
16 – 24 year old women are half as active as men of the same age. Sweat in the City (SitC) is an innovative research project designed to find out why this is, as well as to encourage activity. Run by WSFF, in partnership with the Fitness Industry Association, over 2000 inactive young women from across London were successfully recruited onto the scheme which offered a three month free and mentored gym membership. (Sept-Dec 09) Along with free gym membership the women were offered the following support:
- A website where the women could register for the programme, receive exercise advice and keep a diary of their experience. The women could also communicate with the other SitC women. The innovative social networking side of the project was crucial to making sure the women felt like they were part of a team and not 'doing it alone'.
- A programme mentor who was available to answer any of their enquiries. She would also email the women once a week with motivational messages and details of sports they could try (rowing, tennis, fencing and softball paid for by the programme) via free sessions still ongoing.
- Fortnightly group exercises classes especially for SITC participants, to enable them to try new activities.
These sessions were aimed at beginners. The programme enabled WSFF to speak directly to the women and follow their journey. In addition to their blogs, at the start and finish, participants completed a questionnaire. Findings will be published in the first half of 2009 and used by WSFF to inform its ongoing work aimed at creating a nation of active women. The programme was funded through the National Lottery Community Investment Fund (£200,000), with free gym memberships donated by the leisure centres involved. (market value of £300,000).