Early Signs of Success | Healthier Fleetwood

The Healthier Fleetwood Story

Early Signs of Success

Local residents embraced the notion that they had somewhere to go for connections and something they could say was their own. Individuals have been inspired to set up small groups and activities ranging from arts and crafts, coffee mornings, support groups, sports and fitness and many more. Many have gone from strength to strength and are now an established part of the Town’s voluntary network - others have shone briefly and faded but all of the played a part in raising the spirits of those who took a leading role and attended as members.

As an example - discussion took place at an Open Meeting about tidying a play area so it could be safe and available for children and families. Before an ‘official’ approach had been made to the landlord, local resident Chris had been in to see them asking when could work start and how were they going to help. Although he held no title as such he had been inspired and empowered by the meeting and introduced himself as “Chris from Healthier Fleetwood”. This was really a breakthrough moment for the vision of a connected and confident community.

Mark’s approach to empowering individuals alongside traditional healthcare was also catching the attention of the media. BBC News have filmed in the Town on several occasions, interviewing him and local residents.

Online article by BBC health correspondent Dominic Hughes

Local resident, Pauline Kennedy is interviewed in the article from Dominic and she joined the team, taking on the chair of residents role and attending conferences on our behalf. Having been at the very first meeting and many more, Pauline had been inspired to take control of her wellbeing. She made changes to her diet to lose weight and counter other health issues, and she began to engage much more with the community by joining groups including the wonderful Harmony & Health singers.

Working in Partnership

As well as connecting individual residents Healthier Fleetwood has supported the launch and development of many community projects – three of the most successful being the Fleetwood parkrun, ANON art group and Fleetwood Beach Wheelchairs.

A parkrun event has been muted for some time and we invited interested parties to an initial meeting, hosted several more and contributed some modest funding during the early stages of planning. When local resident Sue Ashton agreed to be the nominated organiser we were a sounding-board and supporter, pulling together and hosting planning meetings. Fleetwood Promenade parkrun was launched in 2019 and now regularly attracts over 100 participants each week plus around 10 volunteers.

ANON is an art for wellbeing group led by Fleetwood resident Heather. Having recently been awarded her degree in fine art she wanted to support her community and we had also just been advised of some funding for mental health projects. Healthier Fleetwood submitted a successful bid for a 12-week course designed and delivered by Heather. Nearly 20 residents joined the group – all thoroughly enjoying the creative sessions and seeing great benefits to their wellbeing and self-confidence. One member started her own degree studies as a result of the boost from being part of Anon. With prudent management, materials and funding were available from the original bid to support two more ANON courses and welcome many more local residents.

Fleetwood Beach Wheelchairs is truly amazing. They have welcomed over 1,000 visitors, giving them access to the Town’s beautiful beach through specially designed and built equipment. If you’ve not seen a beach wheelchair, it has oversize pneumatic tyres that travel across the sand, shingle and shallow water much easier than a conventional wheelchair. The smiles and laughter generated by being on the beach with family and friends is something most of us take for granted but is absolutely priceless to the users of this volunteer-only service. Local resident Mick had the original idea and asked for help from Healthier Fleetwood to get it started. We brought together a steering-group (no pun intended), again provided some funding at the start, also acting as their ‘bank’ while they awaited a charity account and we created all the initial marketing. When Mick had to step away for a while we kept the project ticking over and when he returned it was his vision and drive that made Fleetwood Beach Wheelchairs such a success. It is now regarded as the model to follow when setting up similar projects.

We could share many more testimonials of projects and events where we have been involved but never controlled, it’s about us creating an environment where the individual takes the lead and we are there as needed.

While some of our partners can provide numbers for referrals and outcomes we do not track success in the form of statistics. However for the last 2 quarters of 2019, both the GP visits and the A&E visits by Fleetwood residents were down (against the national trend) so something was making a positive difference.

So there was real optimism that progress was being made but of course, events at the end of the year and the early months of 2020 would see the World face an unprecedented threat to our health and how we connect within communities.

We all had to change the way we operated during the pandemic and for organisations like ourselves, used to working face-to-face, it was a huge challenge.