03 Jul Everton FC Pilot Health Programme for NEETs
Health 25 Project – Everton FC Pilot Health Programme for NEETs
The European Healthy Stadia Network is currently partnering with Everton in the Community to pilot a health intervention programme for young people between the age of 16-20 who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). The pilot intervention is part of the EU funded ‘Health 25’ project, and will be replicated in another 4 European partner countries, including: Austria, Italy, France and Denmark.
The pilot will run in conjunction with Everton In the Community’s ‘Safe Hands’ programme that targets young offenders in the Merseyside area of the UK, aiming to help them integrate back into society after leaving secure care. The pilot will trial a seven session health promotion programme for sports coaches that will educate two cohorts of NEET participants on healthy lifestyle themes, in particular increased physical activity, improved diet, alcohol awareness and the dangers of tobacco usage. In addition to traditional health promotion modules and training techniques, the pilot will also train coaches in simple motivational and goal setting techniques derived from cognitive behavioural therapy, with a view to course participants finding further training, education or employment opportunities upon completion of the pilot.
Commenting on the pilot, Sue Gregory – Safe Hands Programme Manager – said: “It’s great to be involved in piloting a healthy lifestyles project as part of our wider programme of work. Many of our participants will not be exposed to healthy lifestyle messages through traditional mechanisms such as school and work environments, and delivering them through the power of sport is one way of trying to bridge this gap”.
Healthy Stadia’s parent organisation, Health Equalities Group, is responsible for delivering two of Health 25’s core work packages. The project will take the findings from the 5 pilot interventions being run with European partners, and synthesise the findings into a finalised NEET health training programme, due to be published at the end of the programme in December 2013.
