Fun 4 Life is a weight management programme for young people in Walsall between the ages of 8 to 16. Fun 4 Life is part of the Walsall Active Youth (WAY) programme funded by Sport England, is delivered by Walsall Council Sport and Leisure Development Services and works in partnership with NHS Walsall under the guidance of Carnegie Weight Management, UK Leaders in this field. The programme is aimed at individuals who are either overweight or obese and wish to make lifestyle changes in order to prevent an increase in weight.

The programme is not designed to be a “quick fix” approach but aims to provide information and education to help young people and their families make lifestyle changes that will help to ensure a healthy future.  Taking place over a twelve week period each two and a half hour session includes fun skilled based sports, educational lifestyle sessions, monitoring and individual goal setting.

The commission

Walsall Council Creative Development Team in partnership with Walsall Council’s Sports and Leisure Development Service commissioned a creative consultation project to engage with children and their parents/carers who were participants in the Fun 4 Life programme. The project was additionally supported by NHS Walsall, Department of Health – Healthy Communities and Arts Council England West Midlands.

A steering group was formed which consisted of key members of staff from the Fun 4 Life programme, the commissioned artist and members of staff from Walsall Council Creative Development Team.  The aim of the group was to plan, deliver and evaluate the project.

The consultation project focused on capturing participant’s personal journeys through the Fun 4 Life weight management programme.  Utilising a range of direct and indirect creative approaches participants were supported to explore and share their thoughts, feelings, experiences and reflections whilst undertaking the twelve week programme. 

Aims

The project aimed to achieve an in-depth knowledge of the participant’s journey throughout the duration of the programme; using findings to inform the delivery and structure of future sessions, helping to uncover reasons for lapsed attendances, as well as the production of a website and branding for the service.  The project also aimed to explore the role of building creative consultation processes into the programme and the impact this may have.

The steering group expressed an interest in using creative approaches to support young people and their families to maintain contact when away from the sessions and after the twelve week programme had finished.

The project worked with participants of the clinic held at Shelfield Sports and Community College for the twelve week period between 14^th September and 7^th December 2009. 

Arts activities and interventions aimed to provide creative opportunities for both parents and children to explore, share and document their individual and family experiences encompassed within their time engaging with the Fun 4 Life programme. Participants were encouraged to document their journeys through creative processes; this was done on a voluntary basis.

The project engaged:

• Children and their parents/carers recruited onto the Fun 4 Life programme delivered September- December’09 at Shelfield Sports and Community College
• Staff managing and delivering the programme – lifestyle leaders and support workers

Walsall Council’s Creative Development Team (CDT) was recruited as project partners to develop and deliver the consultation exercise.  As experts in the field of creative consultation CDT managed the process which included developing the brief, recruiting the arts workers, taking the lead in planning the project, assisting the arts workers with project delivery and writing the evaluation report.

Richard Franks is a Media Artist employed by Multistory; Richard was recruited by CDT to deliver the creative aspect of this project.  As an artist working primarily in graphic design and illustration he has delivered many design projects within a social marketing context, working with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds, particularly within a community consultation capacity. Richard’s work with Multistory has seen him delivering a diverse range of creative projects including publications, websites, installations, and public events.

Other members of Multistory were involved alongside Richard, Keith Bloomfield assisted with the editing of film footage, and Paul Lacey developed the website and delivered training to enable Fun 4 Life staff to manage its content.

Creative consultation methods were developed to assist in capturing in depth insight into participants perceptions and experiences of the programme including their:

• Expectations
• Motivations
• Aspirations
• Attitudes and perception
• Learning and skills developed
• Challenges
• Personal experiences- the highs and lows
• Goals achieved
• Benefits and impact

The steering group developed the methods of consultation in partnership, Fun 4 Life stated the learning outcomes required and offered the understanding necessary to enable the activities to become embedded into the programme.

Bespoke creative activities were programmed to engage participants individually, in peer groups and as a family unit within the weekly clinics through liaison and planning with the programme leaders as well as finding creative mechanisms to capture thoughts and reflections away from the structured sessions. 

Methods of consultation developed included:

• Text messaging (structured questions)
• Diaries
• Video diary
• Postcards

Fun 4 Life staff recognised the need to develop tools to assist in the promotion of the service and to enable the programme to have a visible and easily accessible profile for staff and young people to maintain contact when requiring ongoing support and advice.  The use of social marketing approaches enabled the creation of a website and publicity based feedback from the target audience.

A website and was developed to act as a platform for the findings of the consultation, as a promotional tool for the service as well as a means for participants to maintain contact with the service after the course.  The website can be content managed by staff from the Fun 4 Life team enabling it to have further use after the project as well as being an interactive tool for potential service users, academics, and people wishing to understand the service further.   Website content includes:

• Quotes from participants and staff

• Documentation and video diary film
• Audio interviews
• Reports
• Blog spots from staff, using a branded character
• Online survey
• Photographs
• Comments and questions with replies
• Events page

All staff on the programme received training on website content management by the website designer.

The final product is a bespoke website incorporating digital photography, video, and an area for comments, highlighting key learning outcomes and information that participants and professionals recorded over the twelve-week program. The site is fully branded to the Fun 4 Life identity and is flexible for staff to include future updates and news when required. The website also houses the downloadable evaluation report and other associated documents.

www.fun4life.org.uk

Attendance and retention

The project has managed to capture, through the text system, reasons why participants have been absent or missed sessions.  Previous clinics have never managed to capture this fully and this has resulted possibly in the loss or assumed loss of people from past programmes.

Understanding reasons for absence has helped the Fun 4 Life staff to engage better with the families and offer them support as appropriate.  The text method enabled staff to discover that there were actually no ‘drop outs’ on this clinic; however in previous years these recorded absences would have been classed as ‘drop-outs’ due to lack of communication.

In addition the regular interviews to camera enabled staff to gain an overview of participant’s attitudes and perceptions towards the course, this may in future clinics enable staff to broach situations which may lead to a ‘drop-out’ before it happens. 

Relationships

Recognised that the project has helped Fun 4 Life staff build up more of a rapport and better relationships with parents and carers. Members of staff have been able to get more of an insight into specific family dynamics and were able to work with the information gathered in a positive way.

The project has resulted in participants being more open with other families and members of staff, discussing and sharing reasons about their lifestyle choices as well as their situation prior to and since starting the programme. 

Fun 4 Life staff also indicated that the level of parental involvement in the sessions was significantly higher than in previous sessions.  This was highlighted by:

• Parents/Carers and children indicating the desire to be part of activity sessions;
• Parents/Carers wishing to be monitored along side their child;
• Parents/Carers asking to be interviewed to camera to share their thoughts.

One to one work to camera helped Fun 4 Life staff understand how best to work with specific families and to establish a rapport and structure for working with them. For example staff gained an insight into reasons for patient’s weight loss/gain throughout the duration of the course as well as an insight into group dynamics:

Parent/Carer: “I think the challenge is talking to each other (the group).  There are still one or two who are on the peripherals”

Comments were also captured surrounding group relationships which could be useful for the promotion of the service on the website:

Parent/Carer:  “I think since day one all of the parents have all got a common goal and want to support each other, we want the best for our children and families.  I think that has probably gelled the parents together”

Young person: “At first when you came in you gelled straight away, it wasn’t like you had to wait and you were on your own…it was like I’d been there already and knew everybody”

Challenges and Achievements

The project has enabled Fun 4 Life staff to gain regular insight into the challenges and achievements experienced by individual participants. This has resulted in the collation of useful quotes which can be used as positive examples in promotional materials:

Young person: “I’ve been feeling more physically active”

Parent/Carer: “Lost four and a half pounds this week so chuffed to bits”

Parent/Carer: “We incorporate new and different vegetables to the ones we used to eat. We’ve cut down on snacks”

In addition methods of recognising where participants may be struggling within the structure of the course have been unearthed.  If consultation is repeated over different twelve week sessions those challenges can be assessed for regular theme and addressed appropriately:

Postcard comment: ‘Finding time to maintain exercise time – as single mom and work full-time’

Postcard comment: ‘I have found the 5-a-day hard’

Evidence of lifestyle changes

Feedback suggested that many of the participants had experienced some lifestyle changes as a result of the course.

Knowledge and understanding:

Parent/Carer: “When we met Ian the first time at the gala baths before we came here one of my concerns was around the costs involved in changing your lifestyle. But sitting here now that’s possibly barking mad. But instead of spending your money on the Christmas chocolates or a take away, you just spend it on a healthy option. I just couldn’t see it then but it seems so blatantly obvious now, you just think it’s going to cost more. A punnet of grapes is £3 but I spent £10 on a curry the other night”

Dietary changes:

Young person: “Normally I’d have four glasses of pop a day, now I have water or squash instead”

Parent/Carer: “I’ve started to try to introduce having a satsuma or banana with my cereal…ive actually found it quite enjoyable…added a bit of sweetness without adding the sugar”

Attitude:

Parent/Carer: “We wanted (our child) to change her attitude to food. Before (our child) used to want to eat all the time, and sometimes eat when she was upset or angry. Or sometimes she was taking food and hiding what she was eating. So we wanted to help change that attitude to food. That has happened and that is really good for us”

Course structure

The next Fun 4 Life clinic has been designed to include an extra half hour in the young people’s physical activity session so that adults take part in the activities as a family, this was based on feedback gathered throughout the course from parents/carers and young people:

Young person: “Yeah, it was better with the parents…you’re learning to be active as a family not just as an individual”

Parent/Carer: “I’d still like to see more interaction for the second part of the session between the parents and children…my wife has just gone home because she doesn’t want to sit around for an hour”

Postcard comment: ‘It was fun to play a team game with the kids – I haven’t done that for years.’

This will be offered as an option and can be removed if families in future sessions do not wish to participate.  In addition a Skillz 4 Life session has been opened up to parents if they wish to participate in activities with the young people.

It was also recognised that parents seem to be more actively involved in the sessions in comparison to previous clinics which have had more of a young people’s focus. This Fun 4 Life programme has seen parents asking more questions, seeking to be involved with young people’s sessions, requesting to be measured/monitored so that they can experience what the children go through as well as improving their own weight management and suggesting ideas for future clinics:

Parent/Carer: “The program has gone out of its way to teach some of the basics…I think they could have done that with the sports as well – try some sports, here’s a badminton racket go and play badminton”

Parent/Carer: “I think what would be useful for the future…is having both parents there, because I go back home and tell the Mrs about what we have done tonight and it’s pooh-poohed because she hasn’t learnt what we are learning”

Due to the wealth of information gathered throughout the project it was agreed that it would be valuable to continue to collect information using the methods developed.  In order to do this at future clinics Fun 4 Life members of staff would need to deliver the consultation excersies.  To assist in capturing the information Fun 4 Life staff were provided with a toolkit, this consists of:

• Video recorder
• Digital camera
• Film
• Editing package for photographs and film
• Tripod
• Template to enable the creation of postcards
• Crib sheet/reminders of each consultation method
• 500 Fun 4 Life comments postcards

The Fun 4 Life website has been developed and will be used at future sessions and as an advocacy tool.  Members of staff will be able to content manage the website with photographs, film footage and quotes collected using the tools developed throughout this project.

Summery of Learning

• The methods and frequency of consultation used in this project enabled Fun 4 Life staff to access a wealth of feedback not normally available.  In previous clinics members of staff would ask five questions to gather reflections at the end of the course as well as asking participants for an overview of course (what they have learnt, what changes they intend on making as a family, what changes they would like to see to the programme, how they envisage their future).  This method often resulted in staff receiving only a small amount of feedback which was not in depth.  It was also recognised that participants had a lot of other questions for staff at the end of the course so don’t spend much time filling out forms.

• The intervention seems to have worked in the way it was intended, being appropriately designed and delivered. The process did not seem to interfere with the structure of Fun 4 Life and participants seemed quite comfortable taking part, having understood the reasons for the specific interventions.

• The recognition that the process could have been more ‘arty’ but that there was not the time for this, in depth arts activities would have been intrusive to the goals and the required structure of the session.
• Process enabled reasonable changes to the course structure based on participant’s feedback.  This enabled families to see that their comments and feedback were of value, being listened to and where appropriate acted on within a short timescale.
• The project allowed staff to gain an insight into individual family relationships informing staff of best methods of approach and engagement.
• By asking questions and encouraging feedback the project developed relationships and opened streams of communication between Fun 4 Life staff and participants which were absent in previous clinics.

Due to the wealth of information gathered throughout the project it was agreed that it would be valuable to continue to collect information using the methods developed.  In order to do this at future clinics Fun 4 Life members of staff would need to deliver the consultation excersies.  To assist in capturing the information Fun 4 Life staff were provided with a toolkit, this consists of:

• Video recorder
• Digital camera
• Film
• Editing package for photographs and film
• Tripod
• Template to enable the creation of postcards
• Crib sheet/reminders of each consultation method
• 500 Fun 4 Life comments postcards

The Fun 4 Life website has been developed and will be used at future sessions and as an advocacy tool.  Members of staff will be able to content manage the website with photographs, film footage and quotes collected using the tools developed throughout this project.

 www.fun4life.org.uk