SPORTS STADIUM AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

Mike ParkerOperations Manager

mike.parker@heartofmersey.org.uk

WORKING ACROSS WORKING ACROSS GREATER MERSEYSIDEGREATER MERSEYSIDE

The HoM ALLIANCEThe HoM ALLIANCEHoM is financed by Sefton PCT and all staff employed by them.

• 5 Merseyside PCTs

• 6 Local Authorities

• Population 2 million

The Healthy Stadia The Healthy Stadia BackgroundBackground

Disasters in English football grounds led to a review of safety (the Taylor report) and to the concept of Healthy Stadia

At the same time a whole settings approach for health interventions was developed in which changes are made to improve health where people live and work

In 2006 this led HoM to look to develop the Healthy setting approach within sports stadia

But why did we feel that this was a potential new setting?

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ACCESS SPORTS STADIA

• Supporters

• Employees

• Conferences/Meetings

• Schools

TRADITIONALLY LOCATED TRADITIONALLY LOCATED IN LESS AFFLUENT AREASIN LESS AFFLUENT AREAS

• Surrounded by dense, low quality housing

•Stadia often central hub of communities

•Strong loyalty to the club/stadia by the surrounding community

TARGET AUDIENCETARGET AUDIENCE

• Traditionally - high percentage of fans are working class

• Traditionally high percentage of fans are middle age men

• These groups are traditionally hard to target with healthy lifestyle messages

• These groups traditionally do not access health care services

DISPARITY IN SERVICESDISPARITY IN SERVICESFOR THE PLAYERSFOR THE PLAYERS……

State of the art indoor and outdoor training facilities, gyms, healthy catering, smoke free, first class medical services

FOR THE FANS AND FOR THE FANS AND COMMUNITYCOMMUNITY……..

SPORTS MARKETING OF SPORTS MARKETING OF UNHEALTHY PRODUCTSUNHEALTHY PRODUCTS

Sport generally linked with unhealthy products – fast food, carbonated drinks, alcohol, games consoles etc

A STADIA SETTING HAS A STADIA SETTING HAS POTENTIAL TO POTENTIAL TO

INFLUENCEINFLUENCE• Tobacco Consumption• Physical Inactivity• Nutrition• Urban Regeneration• Alcohol• Mental Ill Health• Health Inequalities

HEALTHY STADIAHEALTHY STADIA

“A healthy stadium is one which promotes the health of visitors, fans, players, employees and the surrounding community. It is a place where people can go to have a positive, healthy experience playing or watching sport and which promotes positive healthy opportunities in it’s surrounding community”

WORKING WITH SPORTS WORKING WITH SPORTS STADIA ON MERSEYSIDESTADIA ON MERSEYSIDE

PLEDGE TO BECOME PLEDGE TO BECOME HEALTHIER STADIAHEALTHIER STADIA

“To work towards a stadium that promotes the health of visitors,

fans, players, employees and the surrounding community.

“To be a place where people can go to have a positive, healthy

experience playing or watching sport.”

Commitment to Commitment to PartnershipPartnership

SPORTS STADIUM

Local Health Services

Environmental Services

Local Retail Community

Transport Authorities

Consumer Organisations

Food and drinks

Industry

Urban Regeneration

Local Government

OUTCOMESOUTCOMES• 4 of the 6 stadia fully embraced the concept

• All 4 now have established steering group driving the project in their stadia

• Stadia committed to the Greater Merseyside Food Charter for their conferencing and banqueting menus and staff canteens (http://www.heartofmersey.org.uk/foodcharter/?page_id=3).

• Stadia now promoting the fruit and vegetable 5-a-day message to supporters and visitors.

OUTCOMESOUTCOMES• Sports Stars promoting and associating themselves with the concept

• Players’ diets and healthy eating messages are included on the club websites in a ‘Healthy Stadia’ section.http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/club/healthy.htm

• Club plans for new stadium developments will include improved opportunities for offering healthier choices for supporters

OUTCOMESOUTCOMES• Stadia now deliver initiatives aimed at increasing physical activity in children through various community schemes

•Green Travel Plans are being developed in some stadia and cycle storage is now available at some sites

•Local health walks have been developed from stadia.

•All stadia are committed to becoming smoke free and are now looking to support those wishing to quit smoking

HEALTHY STADIA HEALTHY STADIA REPORTREPORT

Full reports available to download on the Heart of Mersey website

www.heartofmersey.org.uk

EUROPEAN PROGRAMMEEUROPEAN PROGRAMME• A successful proposal for a Sports Stadia and Community

Health project was made to the European Union, in the framework of the Public Health Programme.

• Commenced 1st July 2007

• Partners across Europe Including:

• UK Netherlands

• Italy Spain

• Finland Poland

• Latvia Sweden

• Greece

• 36 collaborative partners

GENERAL GENERAL OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES

1. Demonstrate potential impact that sports stadiums can have on community health

2. Change approaches of stadiums in favour of promoting healthier practices and increasing their social responsibilities.

3. Apply a healthy settings approach, as previously adopted in schools, workplaces, cities etc., to sports stadiums.

4. Bring together a wide range of sports clubs and stadiums to share their experiences in promoting healthy lifestyles.

5. Recruit as many European Healthystadia as possible, reflecting a variety of sports and use the high profile and brands to reach large audiences and promote health messages.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVESSPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. Explore current good practice at stadia in promoting good health

2. Make recommendations for sports stadia to become health promoting

3. Develop and pilot a Healthystadia toolkit in varying European settings

4. Organise an international Healthystadia conference

5. Establish a Healthystadia network across participating European countries

6. Create and then raise awareness of the European Healthystadia brand

7. Achieve media coverage and the support of key sports advocates

Work PackagesWork Packages

• Project Coordination To ensure the project is delivered and that all the work packages meet their objectives and outputs

• DisseminationDisseminate the results and promote their exploitation

• EvaluationMonitor and evaluate the process of the project and assess the output of the project against the measurable objectives

Work PackagesWork Packages• Audit of Current Good Practice

collation, summary and assessment of current practice which promotes community health at sports stadia across Europe

• Developing a websiteA website will be developed to promote the project and to aid dissemination and evaluation www.healthystadia.eu

• Develop and Pilot a Healthy Stadia ToolkitA new European Healthy Stadia Toolkit will be developed to support partnership development and inform stadia partnerships on the steps required to make specific health improvements.

• Organisation of international conference

Time ScalesWork-

package

Work package title Lead partner Number of person days

Starting date

Ending date

WP 1 Coordination of the project Sefton Primary Care Trust, Heart of Mersey

576 M 1 M 30

WP 2 Dissemination of the results Medical University Lodz 180 M 6 M 30

WP 3 Evaluation of the project University of Pavia 183 M 1 M 30

WP 4 Audit of Existing Good Practice

International Sport Projects Association, Oravais

152 M 1 M 22

WP 5 Developing and maintaining a website

Andalusian Centre for Sport Medicine 152 M 1 M 28

WP 6 Develop and Pilot a Healthy Stadia Toolkit Province of Flevoland 598 M 9 M 24

WP 7 Organisation of international conference

Sefton Primary Care Trust, Heart of Mersey

98 M 6 M 26

FUNDINGFUNDING

• GLOBAL COST:

• Total Project Funding approximately -885,000 Euros

• EC funding @ 60% - 530,000 Euros

FURTHER FURTHER INFORMATIONINFORMATION

• Websitewww.heartofmersey.org.uk

• Email mike.parker@heartofmersey.org.uk

• Telephone+44 (0)151 9287820

This paper was produced for a meeting organized by Health & Consumer Protection DG and represents the views of its author on thesubject. These views have not been adopted or in any way approved by the Commission and should not be relied upon as a statement of the Commission's or Health & Consumer Protection DG's views. The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the dataincluded in this paper, nor does it accept responsibility for any use made thereof.