And Finally

 

Walking for Health

‘Year of Woodlands Walks’ launches

Breathe fresh air into your life. Walking for Health and VisitWoods launch a year of woodland walking.

Walking for Health supports health walks across England and has made a difference to thousands of people’s lives by offering free, accessible and regular exercise
opportunities for all. Now, with spring well and truly here, Walking for Health is encouraging people to reap the wellbeing benefits of the natural environment.

 

To make it easy for you to find your nearest walks in woods, Walking for Health has mapped all of its health walks that pass through woodland. They have done this by teaming up with the new Woodland Trust-led VisitWoods project – the UK’s first interactive website to map nearly 14,000 of the UK’s woods.

Search for your nearest walk at:  www.woodlandwalks.org.uk

This joint partnership has been made possible through the funding that VisitWoods received from Natural England’s Access to Nature programme. Together, Walking for Health and VisitWoods launched the ‘Year of Woodland Walks’ on Tuesday 24 May, a campaign aimed at making being healthy both easy and enjoyable View the full news item

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Is it time for a LifeCheck?

Department of Health

Is my diet affecting my health? Am I drinking too much? Am I active enough? Getting personalised health information, whether to address specific concerns or just see how you are faring, can be tricky. But from today, it will be much easier to check how healthy you are using a free, revamped tool on the NHS Choices website.

The LifeCheck tool asks you a small number of questions about your age and lifestyle which generates an individual health profile and health tips tailored to your needs. You are then encouraged to set achievable goals to improve your health and wellbeing.

 

View the full press release

 

The tool is available at www.nhs.uk/lifecheck

 

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Change 4 Life promotional campaign

 

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Catch up on the latest from Staffordshire Young People’s Service

 

Please find our latest newsletter.

 

YouFind

 

www.youfind.me.uk has had a make over! We spoke to young people about how they would like the site to look and the result is what you see before you!

 

The way the site works has mostly remained the same – your username and password will still work and you can carry on adding activities as and when.

 

Changes include:

• The search tool on the homepage is now a lot quicker and easier to use as requested by young people. You can however, choose to carry out an advanced search if needed.
• You can now sort your search results alphabetically, by distance, by organisation or by category.
• There is no longer a news section – the news section is now situated under the ‘things to do’ section on Youthbox so please submit your news items to youthbox@staffordshire.gov.uk
• Youfind is now linked to the Youthbox You Tube channel so please submit any video content you have to the Youthbox Team at the address below in my e-mail signature.  Alternatively upload them to YouTube yourself and send us a link.

 

Please e-mail any comments or news items to jemma.matthews@staffordshire.gov.uk

 

 What’s in the box?

 

Youthbox www.youthbox.info is the county council’s brand new website for young people in Staffordshire.

 

The site is now available on the web and is the place to go if young people aged 11 - 19 want help and advice for when they grow up, to search for things to do or simply want to share their own work.

 

Information about services available to young people, news and local projects will be available, as well as all the latest on what other young people are up to across the region.

 

As of June 20^th which is when the site will officially launch, Youthbox will also be the main point of call for all jobs, careers and learning advice, replacing the Staffordshire Connexions website.

 

There will also be regular competitions where young people can submit their own work to win some top prizes.

 

We spoke to over 500 young people, asking them what information they would like to see on this site and how they want it to look.  The result is what you see before you!

 

However, we recognise that we won’t be able to cover everything ourselves and that all our partners will have a good idea about where we could and should be improving the website with links or information about local support, services, initiatives and projects that you are involved in.

 

This will not only give you free publicity but will also give your service the opportunity to get key information out to your target audience.

 

Please take a look at www.youthbox.info and send in your ideas, feedback and submissions to youthbox@staffordshire.gov.uk. Alternatively you can call Marketing Officer, Chloe Shrubb on 01785 278356 or Project Officer, Jemma Matthews on 01785 278782.

 

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Dancing for the Games, Staffordshire

 

Staffordshire County Council, on behalf of the Dance Development Group for Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent, is delighted to announce that they have been commissioned by Dancing for the Games to deliver a county wide dance project which will celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across Staffordshire.

 

Dancing for the Games is a West Midlands-wide dance programme, which is inspired by London 2012 and part of the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands. It has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as Arts Council England and Advantage West Midlands.

 

The project will be an innovative, first ever county wide project and will deliver an ambitious high profile programme of dance activities, projects and performances across Staffordshire. This will provide Staffordshire communities with the opportunity to engage with and take part in a unique celebratory event with a specific focus on the 2012 celebrations.

 

Naomi Temple, Programme Manager for Dancing for the Games said: “We are delighted that the Dance Development Group for Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent is part of our Dancing for the Games programme, which aims to make the West Midlands the region for dance in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is fantastic that through this project people from across Staffordshire will have the opportunity to work with Retina, an internationally renowned dance company and to create their own choreography to be performed throughout the county.”

 

Working in partnership with all districts and boroughs the project will aim to develop 35 district project groups. Led by experienced Staffordshire dance artists these district projects will create new choreography to be performed at district venues as well as a spectacular final county showcase in July/August 2012.

 

Artistic Director, Filip Van Huffel of Retina Dance Company will lead on the creative vision of the project working with the 7 Olympic and Paralympic themes. The company will deliver open workshops to engage with participants and recruit them onto the district projects. An artistic mentorship programme, led by the Artistic Director, will provide professional development opportunities for Staffordshire dance artists involved in the project. A young leadership programme will provide 7 young dancers the chance to develop skills as young dance leaders and the opportunity to be part of a developing county wide network.

 

If you would like any information about the project or would like to get involved in any of the dance activities that will be on offer please contact :

Alison Lord
Dance Development Officer at Heritage and Arts 
T: 01785 278647
E: alison.lord@staffordshire.gov.uk