How Do You Move? – telling real people’s physical activity stories

Many of us will have started 2020 with New Year’s resolutions to get more active, but more often than not, these good intentions fall by the wayside by the time mid-January rolls around.

The How Do You Move? project explores how Bristolians incorporate physical activity into their daily lives, despite circumstances and surroundings that encourage inactivity. These stories will be shared with the public for the first time at Knowle West Media Centre on 22 January:

• Abiir’s story – Abiir lives in Easton in Bristol and has four young daughters. She spent her childhood in Germany, and is now a keen advocate for increasing cycling in the Somali community
• Ben’s story – Ben is a community activist in Bedminster, Bristol. He’s retired and spends a lot of his time working with local people to improve the neighbourhood, particularly to make it more pleasant and accessible for walking
• Lesley’s story – Lesley works full-time managing a large university department, as well as juggling family life with her partner, two teenage daughters and two dogs. She came to running later in life and is now an active part of the running community in Staple Hill, Bristol
• Stephen and Nikki’s story – Husband and wife Stephen and Nikki both work in the NHS, and both have experienced physical and mental health challenges in the last 10 years. Physical activity has helped improve their wellbeing
• Vince’s story – Vince lives in Bedminster in Bristol and has strong links to Knowle West and Hengrove where he grew up. Despite health issues, he’s used the support available in South Bristol to help maintain both his mental and physical wellbeing.

The launch event will include the screening of four films telling Abiir, Ben, Lesley and Vince’s stories.

How Do You Move? is a collaboration between researchers at the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West) and the arts charity Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC).

Dr James Nobles, Senior Research Associate at NIHR ARC West and the University of Bristol, said:

“Last year, the Government published their new guidelines for physical activity. They recommend how much and what type of physical activity everyone should do to improve their health. But in the past these guidelines have been very difficult for the public to understand and have often led to confusion. In our How Do You Move? project, we worked with local people to develop recommendations for how physical activity advice could be communicated more effectively. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in this process.”

How Do You Move? involved a series of workshops with different groups of people from Bristol to explore their reactions to the guidelines and how they’d like them to be communicated. One of the overriding messages from these workshops was that people wanted to hear recommendations from ‘people like them’, which inspired the films and stories being launched on 22 January.

Zoe Banks Gross, Engagement Manager at Knowle West Media Centre, said:

“At Knowle West Media Centre, we use digital storytelling to elevate voices from the community and inspire people to make change. It’s great to launch these films after working with local people to develop this project. We used the Bristol Approach, Knowle West Media Centre’s co-design methodology, to develop the workshops and it also informed the film-making process. It was refreshing to bring artists and members of the community into the creation of the workshops, which is unusual in academic research.”

Seed corn funding from the Brigstow Institute, University of Bristol allowed this project to get off the ground.