Health & Wellbeing of Adults Newsletter July 2024
Active Kent & Medway's 2024 Conference
Active Kent & Medway’s annual conference will take place on Wednesday 16 October 2024 at Kent Event Centre, Detling. The event is free and open to representatives from across health, leisure, local council, voluntary, sport and activity sectors who share our vision of more people, more active, more often.
Continuing our support of the county’s strategy for sport and physical activity Move Together, the theme of this year’s conference is: promote equality, value diversity, support inclusion.
We are delighted to welcome Donna Fraser OBE as our keynote speaker. The event will also feature Q&A panels, workshops and opportunities to network. Conference bookings will open in September but we encourage you to save the date in your calendar now.
Everyday Active
Everyday Active is Active Kent & Medway’s flagship campaign helping more people to be more active in their everyday life. The website, www.everydayactivekent.org.uk is central to the campaign. It promotes activities offered by partners countywide and provides support and resources for health professionals, social prescribers, One You advisers and other partners to have meaningful and productive conversations about physical activity.
Workshop
The Everyday Active Workshop is for anyone wanting to improve their knowledge and understanding of the benefits of physical activity, to feel confident about having conversations with others to help get more people, more active across Kent and Medway.
Join us online for one of our free workshops taking place on the following dates:
- Thursday 26 September, 13:00 – 14:30
- Wednesday 4 December, 10:00 – 11:30
Register for an Everyday Active Workshop
Summer Activity Ideas
We’ve recently improved the personalisation function on the Everyday Active website, making it easier for users to find the activities they love.
For activity ideas this summer, there’s a great selection dedicated to ‘Active Days Out’, which you can further filter by activities to do on your own, with the family or where you can meet new people. Alternatively, you can search for activities in your local community, where our Everyday Active Champions are adding lots of summer activities every week!
We invite you, and your colleagues, to connect with Everyday Active on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn to keep up to date with activity ideas this summer.
Follow this link to Everyday Active
Shaun the Sheep in the Heart of Kent
Active Kent & Medway is proud to support Heart of Kent Hospice Shaun the Sheep in the Heart of Kent, an exciting free art trail with over 50 large individually decorated Shaun the Sheep sculptures placed around the parks, town centre and river walks in Maidstone.
From Saturday 29 June to Friday 30 August 2024, you can discover all 50+ bold and eye-catching Shaun sculptures out on the trail including ‘Raising the Baa’, sponsored by Active Kent & Medway and illustrated by twins Rachael and Phillipa, Wild In Art Artists.
It’s easy for everyone to take part in the trail. Download the free trail app or use the Shaun in the Heart of Kent map to explore the trail and find ‘Raising the Baa’ along with the rest of his flock. Enter the unique codes for each Shaun via the app to unlock your trail rewards.
Everyday Health Resources
Condition-specific resources
We’ve collated a list of partner resources providing the evidence, advice and support to help people with a specific health condition to become more active. The resources can be found in our Everyday Active Partner Hub.
If you’d like to explore activities that are suitable for a specific health condition, we recommend you visit Everyday Active and enter the condition (ie. ‘cancer’) in the search function. If you’re aware of an activity that is not listed on our website, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to add the details.
Follow this link to Everyday Active Partner Hub
Disability specific resources
We’ve also compiled a list of partner resources providing the evidence, advice and support for disabled people to become more active. The resources can be found in our Everyday Active Partner Hub.
In addition to these resources, we’ve included some advice and guidance from Carers UK, a supportive community making life better for carers. The Carers Active Hub is a useful resource for carers so they can look after themselves to be stronger and more resilient for those they look after.
Everyday Mental Health
Talking Therapies Service
Talking therapies are for anyone who’s going through a tough time. One in four people will have a mental health concern at some point in their lives.
Kent & Medway Talking Therapies is a free and confidential service offering mental health support to anyone over 17.5 years living in Kent & Medway. Services include talking and listening therapies, like counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy. To find out more about accessing support, which includes self referral, please visit:
Follow this link to access Talking Therapies support and advice
Release the pressure
Active Kent & Medway is proud to support the Release the pressure campaign delivered by Kent County Council and A Better Medway.
We invite local organisations across Kent and Medway to get behind this important and timely campaign. We’ve produced a campaign toolkit with editable posters, social media graphics and suggested tweets for local organisations to use in their own promotion of the campaign.
Healthier Choices
One You Kent
‘Healthy changes start with little changes’ – that’s the message from the Better Health campaign, which is being supported by One You Kent services.
One You Kent can help you lose weight and get active with lots of free tools and support. You can also try the ‘How are You?’ quiz, access the Easy Meals app or the Active 10 app, find a local health walk and access the NHS 12-week diet and exercise plan, plus a referral form to speak to a One You Kent advisor.
Follow this link to One You Kent
A Better Medway
A Better Medway provides specialist support and advice as well as programmes and resources to help people living or working in Medway to improve their health and well-being.
Whether you’re looking to quit smoking, improve your mental health, lose weight, get active, find substance misuse support, and/or check your overall health, the Better Medway Team can help.
Other News & Announcements
Contact Us
We’d love to hear from you
If there’s anything in this newsletter you’d like to discuss, then just get in touch and one of our team members will get back to you as soon as possible. Please email: activekent@kent.gov.uk
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