More than €7m of European funding was secured by a cross-border partnership to develop an approach to support people who were unemployed and /or struggling with weight issues to improve their health, wellbeing and opportunities. The project, called 'ASPIRE' which ran from Sept 2019 to June 2023 involved sixteen partners from Sothern England and Northern France. The programme was delivered at 9 sites of which 3 were in the UK. Medway Community Healthcare (MCH) was one of the UK partners and delivered the programme in Medway.
A wide range of activities were included in a programme designed to support people to improve their mental wellbeing, self-esteem, physical health and activities levels and learn new skills. Work was undertaken to reduce the stigma of living with obesity and a toolkit was designed to support people wishing to set up an ASPIRE type programme in the future.
Information on how to implement the ASPIRE project can be found at: https://aspire-wellbeing.eu/
Participants had an initial appointment to discuss their reasons for taking part in ASPIRE. These could have been to grow their own food, learn how to cook and eat more healthily, be more active, improve self-esteem and mental wellbeing, volunteer or get a job. Personal goals were set to meet these aims.
Participants were then offered activities for example working at the two ASPIRE allotments at Fort Amherst, exercise classes, mindfulness sessions, cooking classes and employability skills sessions.
These activities were delivered in small groups at various locations across Medway
Please see the ASPIRE MCH Journey for full details of how the programme was designed and delivered in Medway.
One of the main aims of the ASPIRE project was to increase Social Capital. As a result of the funding an extensive kitchen that was installed at St Augustine’s Church, Gillingham and used for the cooking classes. This kitchen which is located in a room now known as the ASPIRE ROOM is still being used by the church for the same purpose and by a range of community groups.
The Shaw Memorial Hall, Gillingham was fully refurbished and used to deliver many of the ASPRE activities plus as a base for the ASPIRE Team. Through an agreement with St Augustine’s who own the Hall it and the kitchen are still available for use by MCH on Community projects at no charge for the next 3 years.
The Welfare minibus purchased by Gillingham St Angels is available for use by MCH
2 mature allotments that were developed from scratch have been handed back to Fort Amherst and will be used by the community of Medway.
Development of a toolkits to implement ASPIRE project https://aspire-wellbeing.eu/
