The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham has been shortlisted to apply to the Football Foundation for ‘Active Through Football’ funding to support the increasing of physical activity in people aged 16+, and a consultation is underway to gather ideas.

The ambition of Active Through Football is to increase activity levels and create sustainable behaviour change. A key element of the success and sustainability of the project is community engagement, and a survey is currently active to gain the views of local residents and organisations so they can help develop this project.

There are many ways this programme can be delivered, including recreational football, female sessions, Walking Football and ‘football for fitness’ classes. The eventual delivery, location and time will be fully dependent on the local community feedback.

Ideas and suggestions can then be taken on board to help shape the project’s structure. The areas shortlisted have been selected strategically through a mapping tool which uses levels of deprivation and physical activity, as well as socio-economic group classification data. A community conversation is being hosted on Thursday 4th March from 6:00-7:00pm 

Click here to sign-up for your free community conversation ticket, or to complete the survey. To find out more about the project, contact Sean Harris via sean.harris@essexfa.com. Information on grassroots football can also be found on Twitter by following @EssexCountyFA, or by searching for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.