Healthy Goals

During their mid to late teens, young people are faced with a number of challenges. Exams, social expectations, further education, vocational training and / or finding their first job can all take their toll on young people at a time when they are under immense pressure to achieve – unfortunately this means that their health is not one of their top priorities.

Our Healthy Goals: Better Lives programme has been developed to help young people navigate their way through complex social landscapes, understand and assess risk, and empower them to make positive choices that support their health in the short and long-term.

Healthy Stadia trains your club community coaches to deliver interactive sessions across a range of lifestyle risk factors including but not limited to, physical inactivity, food and nutrition, tobacco and e-cigarettes, alcohol and recreational drug use.

In addition, staff receive specific training on goal setting from behaviour change practitioners, and a set of practical tools including a coach manual and PowerPoint presentations to help with delivery. The goal-setting framework combined with increased knowledge of lifestyle risk factors helps to support participants to make positive choices in the interest of their own health and wellbeing.

At the beginning and end of each Healthy Goals programme, participants complete a Healthy Lifestyle Questionnaire which collects information on attitudes and behaviours aligned to the health themes of the programme.

Healthy Stadia staff then analyse the two datasets to measure any changes that take place during the programme. The results are published in a short evaluation report that can help to improve delivery of the programme and report back to funders on the impact your club is having.

In 2015, Healthy Stadia received grant funding from Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group to develop a healthy lifestyle programme to complement Everton in the Community’s existing social inclusion programmes, including national citizen service. This led to over 350 young people from areas of high deprivation in Merseyside improving their health and developing goal-setting skills.

Healthy Stadia worked closely with EitC coaches to co-develop a suite of practical delivery materials, that encourage participants to think about their health and why it is important to develop healthy habits and how this benefits young people. Results include:

average number of physically active minutes per week post-programme (+11)

of participants reduced the time they spent sitting, playing computer games and watching television

of participants reported they slept for longer

of participants increased their fruit and vegetable intake

reduced the number of unhealthy snacks such as chocolate bars and crisps they had each day

cut down on the number of high-sugar drinks they had

reduced the number of fast food or takeaway meals they had each week

To find out more about Healthy Goals, click the button opposite to download the programme brochure including a detailed case study on the delivery of the project with Everton in the Community.