LIVEWIRE and Warrington Borough Council are looking for Warrington women who live in Latchford and Westy to take part in a free 12 week exercise programme in January.
It’s part of the national This Girl Can initiative which challenges women to do activities they never thought were possible and celebrates active women who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets.
The scheme will allow females over the age of 18 to take part in stimulating activities such as horse riding, rock climbing, archery and golf as well as tennis, yoga, trampoline classes and ladies-only boxing for free.
Launching with a confidence boosting session with Warrington Collegiate, the group will work together to get the enthusiasm and self-belief to attempt new activities. They will be supported through the 12 weeks by a mentor who to help them believe ‘they can’ by maintaining their self-belief, confidence and motivation.
It follows the massive success of this year’s This Girl Can programme which saw 32 inactive 14-25 year-olds challenge themselves to try something new.
Laura Akers, who took part in 2016’s This Girl Can, said: “The programme gave me opportunities to try sports that I would never have considered before such as water polo, cricket, tennis, archery and horse riding. It gave me the confidence to try new things and since taking part, I now lead a much more active lifestyle.”
Lou Shannon, senior LiveWire Advisor for health and engagement, added: “This year’s This Girl Can programme was a huge success with some amazing results and I was really keen to run something again.
“The programme allows women to unleash their hidden salsa queen. Or become the next Maid Marion by getting their hands on a bow and arrow to hit the bullseye. Or even scale the heights of Mount Snowden.
“January sees the start of many people making new year’s resolutions to make changes to their life – it’s a time of pledges to get fit, lose weight, be happier, more positive and challenge yourself to try new things.”
This year’s programme is free for the first time thanks to funding from The Latch Ford Big Local area. It will be run by the Active LiveWire team in partnership with Warrington Borough Council’s neighbourhoods team.
Executive board member for public health and wellbeing, Cllr Maureen McLaughlin, said: “When we talk about being active, a lot of us immediately think of going to the gym and this can be quite a scary prospect for some people.
“This project gives us the chance to offer women the opportunity to try something a bit different that they’ve maybe secretly always wanted to but haven’t had the chance or confidence to.
“We hope that the women involved in this project can make the lifestyle changes they want and stick to them for the long-term.”
Places are still available for the 2017 project and the Active LiveWire team will be holding recruitment workshops in January.
If you wish to sign up for the project or find out more, you can come along to one of the sessions below at Westy Community Centre and meet the team.
Tuesday, January 10 at 3pm-6pm
Thursday, January 12 at 8:30am- 2pm
Alternatively, you can call the project’s coordinator, Lou Shannon on 01925 624996 or [email protected].
