As 2022 draws to a close, we are celebrating our highlights from the year, working together with more than 85 partners across Oxfordshire. Together, we've helped over 6,000 people to improve their health and wellbeing through physical activity. We continue to work tirelessly for a happier, healthier and more active Oxfordshire and there is so much more to do - but for now we want to say thank you to our partners and communities, and take a moment to celebrate highlights from the year with our "12 days of Christmas" campaign.

Move Together

To date, Move Together has engaged over 2,000 adults across the county to improve their activity levels and health, both physical and mental. This has resulted in 69% of participants increasing their weekly activity levels thanks to the support provided. 2022 has been a great year for this project and we're looking forward to continuing the great work in 2023.

"It has changed my life, after meeting the team, I got the help I needed and structured a routine into my day. I am more aware of movement. Once I started moving everything seems to get better".

"I have enjoyed getting fitter and improving my health and my mental wellbeing has improved since doing exercise. Also, my fatigue eases considerably when I exercise regularly. I actively enjoy working out now and don't feel it a chore but an enjoyable activity."

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Move Together reaches over 1000 participants across Oxfordshire
Active Oxfordshire – "It was good to realise you're not alone." How Move Together is changing lives
Active Oxfordshire – Move Together: The wider impact

Access Sport Oxfordshire: inclusive sports for young people

In April 2022, we were delighted to launch Access Sport Oxfordshire in partnership with Access Sport, thanks to generous support from Mark Beard, High Sheriff of Oxfordshire & many other donors. Access Sport Oxfordshire is an inclusive sports programme set to benefit hundreds of children in greatest need across the county. Activities include providing BMX sessions & bikes to Banbury and Blackbird Leys, supporting sports clubs to increase access for disabled children and so much more. Since launching, Access Sport Oxfordshire has already supported 330 children in areas of most need.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Access Sport Oxfordshire: The new county-wide inclusive sport programme
Active Oxfordshire – Access Sport Oxfordshire: transforming young people's lives through inclusive sports

Creating Active Schools pilot

The Creating Active Schools (CAS) Framework was developed by an international group of experts to promote a whole systems approach to school improvement.

This year we have worked alongside the Active Partnership National Team, local authorities and school leaders to roll out a pilot for the framework, working towards embedding physical activity in the ethos of schools across Oxfordshire. With lots more still to do, we're looking forward to building on this framework and implementing this new approach further next year.

Find out more here:
Report highlights benefit of building movement into whole school day | Active Partnerships

YouMove

We were delighted to launch YouMove in May, at a critically important time, with many Oxfordshire families hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis and post COVID concerns about both physical and mental health and wellbeing.

YouMove is a county-wide programme to help families with children on benefits related free school meals to be able to access a wide range of low cost and free activities.So far, YouMove has supported more than 1,000 families to enjoy badminton, football, swimming, dance and so much more – making a real difference when it's needed most.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Celebrating 3 months of YouMove
Active Oxfordshire – YouMove launches across Oxfordshire to help families get active together

Active Ambassadors

The Active Ambassador group has recently celebrated its 2nd year of existence. With a diversepool of 23 ambassadors, we feel honouredto have such a committed group across the county championing the positive benefits of physical activity in their clubs and communities and want to reiterate our thanks for all their contributions so far.

In the past year we have had ambassadors write blogs, speak at conferences,lead sessions at Oxfordshire on the Move events, complete their own physical activity challenges as well as join the Active Oxfordshire Staff Team and the Board of Trustees. We are really pleased with the progress we have made over the past year in embedding this lived experience across the organisation and are even more excited about our 2023 plans supporting the Active Ambassadors.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Breaking down barriers to activity: shining a light on UK Disability History Month
Active Oxfordshire – Inclusivity in action

Sanctuary Wheels

In May, Sanctuary Wheels was launched. This project has been run by Cyclox in partnership with Active Oxfordshire, Asylum Welcome, TRAX, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and many other community organisations across the county focused on donating bikes to refugees. So farover 450 bikes have been donated, serviced and distributed to refugees throughout Oxfordshire.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Welcome by Wheels: Sanctuary Wheels donates over 140 bikes to refugees across Oxfordshire

Active Travel & 8 Bike Libraries placed in schools in Oxfordshire

We're celebrating over 9 months of Active Travel across the county. So far, Active Travel has supported over 30 projects across Oxfordshire, with over 1,000 participants benefiting from walking and wheeling more.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Increasing walking & wheeling across Oxfordshire: Active Travel six months in

Oxfordshire on the Move

We are so excited to have worked with more than 70 organisations in 2022 to co-develop a new social movement for physical activity, known as Oxfordshire on the Move. Through a range of workshops and events, we've agreed four main ambitions that are set to transform thousands of lives by helping people move more. Please get in touch if you'd like to find out more, and in the meantime you can check out this video explaining the context so far.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Introducing Oxfordshire on the Move

EDI Progress

In 2022 we strengthened our commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion across the organisation and the county. We continue to tackle inactivity and fight inequality through our projects, partners and board of trustees.

We've seen one of our Active Ambassadors Carl Davis join the board as part of our campaign to place higher value on lived experience at all levels of the organisation and this was further reinforced when Active Ambassador Phoebe joined the team as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Coo-rdinator. We've seen real progress across the team in embedding our equitable approach throughout our programmes such as YouMove and Move Together, but also in our ability to platform voices, stories and learning.

We have a lot to do next year, including establishing a county-wide EDI peer support group, but are looking forward to making more progress to a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Oxfordshire.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Let's talk about legacies: Phoebe Gibbons on changing the conversation
Active Oxfordshire – Embedding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in everything we do: Phoebe Gibbons on why our response to EDI is so much more than a tick box exercise

Active Medicine

This year we have trained over 300 people on Active Medicine, with key strategic partnerships being established with Age UK Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire MIND.

This work is set to continue in 2023 with an anticipation of an additional 1500 people being trained in the county.

Find out more here:
Active Oxfordshire – Active Medicine workshop for Children & Young People Professionals

School Games

This year we have worked with School Games organisers to review and adapt the traditional offers to tackle the deep-rooted inequalities that exist in sport and physical activity.

As part of Sport England's Uniting the Movement strategy, there has been a shift from providing investment to deliver national programmes to more place-based working. The focus now on increasing resource for children at the greatest risk of inactivity, investing in those that need it most.

This has been really interesting work for us that we look forward to continuing in 2023.

Find out more:
Active Oxfordshire – Oxfordshire School Games: a new direction of travel
Active Oxfordshire – Creating Active Schools framework: A tool for bringing whole systems approaches to life
Active Oxfordshire – Oxfordshire School Games: turning the tide on how we champion activity for Oxfordshire's young people

Black Women Bike launching in Oxford

We have been absolutely thrilled to partner with Dianne Regisford, Joy Riders Oxford, Broken Spoke Coop, Windrush Bike Project and Wheels 4 All Oxford on this mutual exchange of social networking and movement building.

Black Women Bike was set up 8 weeks ago by Dianne Regisford who brought 7 of her fellow black female community leaders together, enabling them to learn to ride a bike and promote the benefits of cycling.

The idea is to scale it with some the women as cycling instructors for their communities, so watch this space!

Beyond those 12 milestones, we are proud to have supported so many fantastic projects and worked with over85 partners to increase activity levels and challenge health inequalities across Oxfordshire.

We're also excited to be recruiting in the New Year for roles within our talented and friendly team, so watch this space for more information!

If you'd like to learn more about the work we do, or have a project you'd like to tell us about, please get in touch with Helen: helenmariner@activeoxfordshire.org