Smoothie bars and mini health checks, provided by Stonehouse Community Gym, all helped to launch Foyer Health at Plymouth Foyer’s Open Day on Wednesday 10 December.
“Our residents already have their own support programme to aid them into training and employment, or address other issues. Now we'll add life coaching to help young people achieve other goals - especially if they involve getting fit and keeping healthy. Foyer staff members will also undergo training in life coaching," said Dawn Bradley, Training & Employment Advisor at Plymouth Foyer.
The programme is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Well-being programme and managed by the Foyer Federation.
Foyer Health has four key areas:
- young people will be supported to choose and achieve a health and well-being goal through one to one support from a member of staff that has been on a life coaching skills training programme
- young people will have opportunities to experience a range of healthy living activities through taster sessions on health eating, physical activity and mental well-being
- every foyer will develop a specialist project on either healthy eating, physical activity or mental well-being
- Foyer Health will also enable 120 foyers in England to achieve specialist health accreditation standards that will ensure that every Foyer is a healthy place to live, work and learn.
The Big Lottery Fund Well-being programme aims to enable people and communities in greatest need to create a healthier lifestyle and improved wellbeing.
The £160 million Well-being Programme provides funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being. The programme focuses on three strands: mental health – to help people and communities to improve mental well-being; physical activity – to help people to become more physically active in their daily lives and in their communities; and healthy eating - for children, parents and the wider community to eat more healthily.
To deliver this programme, the Big Lottery fund has appointed a number of organisations (including the Foyer Federation) that are each delivering a portfolio of projects in England.
