Women get Ready Steady Active in Ravensthorpe

Ready Steady Active, in collaboration with the Everybody Active Team, has been engaging women from Ravensthorpe and surrounding areas who had been inactive. This initiative targeted women from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic backgrounds to understand how they felt about sport and physical activities in their local community..

The project ran between June to December 2022, supported by partners like Women in The Lead Project and Kirklees Council Cohesion team to identify and consult with different groups within Dewsbury West. The aim was to understand the preferences of women regarding sports and physical activities in their local community.

Over the six-month program at Diamond Wood Community Academy and Greenwood Library and Community Centre, 28 women had a go at a range of activities. Despite facing health issues, including cardiovascular concerns, the women enthusiastically explored various activities.

The sessions involved a range of physical activities including cardio workouts such as aerobics, circuit training, boxercise, strength training using resistance weights/bands and body weight and adapted sports such as rounders, cricket and football. Healthy snacks were offered to the women after the session to allow the women to socialise and connect with each other.

The feedback from the programme was good, women said this was the first time they had the opportunity to get active, try out different exercises and sports such as Boxercise and Rounders.

Many made new connections and friendships and told us the sessions helped with their mental health and also provided a diversion to responsibilities they had looking after children and within the home. A number of women continued to attend other Ready Steady Active sessions and started going for walks with their friends and families.

The aim is to help people keep active and boost confidence. Some of the women took on more responsibilities supporting the session and continued to attend other Ready Steady Active community-based exercise classes at Kick Off, Dewsbury and Al-Hikmah Centre, Batley.