Fylde Borough Council employees are signing up to a new YMCA programme designed to drive up their physical activity levels during and after work.
The new Sport England funded Y Active Workforce programme launched this month with Fylde Council and North West Ambulance staff being the first to benefit from the £116,500 cash injection to support local business and their employees.
The two year funding was successfully secured through a Fylde Coast YMCA bid in partnership with Wyre and Fylde Borough Councils, the Local Strategic Partnerships and the Fylde and Wyre Sport and Physical Activity Alliances (SPAA).
This means that hundreds of employees in the boroughs are now eligible for massively reduced YMCA health and fitness memberships, work based taster sessions, health seminars, health advice, step-o-meter challenges and health assessments.
Paul Reeves, Y Active Workforce Co-ordinator for Fylde Coast YMCA said: “The aim of Y Active Workforce is to provide workers with as many opportunities as possible to get involved with physical activity.
“We want to remove as many of the traditional barriers to exercise as possible. We know that people don’t often get involved with physical activity because of a lack of time, cost, motivation and accessibility. Y Active Workforce aims to remove these barriers by providing the reduced priced memberships across all Fylde Coast YMCA centres, making more physical activity opportunities available around the working day and delivering healthy messages along the way to keep participants motivated.
“The main thing is that our team will be working with businesses on an individual basis to ensure we meet the needs of the business and the workforce.”
Councillor John Coombes, Leader of Fylde Borough Council said: ”Being efficient and on the ball is important to delivering a high level of service the council strives for. This means having a healthy body as well as a healthy mind so I think it is important to encourage staff to stay fit and active. This scheme will help our staff with more opportunities to do just that and I for one welcome the chance to be involved.”
The Y Active Workforce team will also be linking in with company Occupational Health Departments, enabling long term sick employees to return to work. And as well as offering physical activity opportunities, the initiative will also look to incorporate information sessions on smoking cessation, alcohol reduction and back care through existing partnerships with the local NHS.
Interested Fylde and Wyre businesses should make enquiries directly to the Y Active Workforce team on 01253 882105.
Check out the Y Active Workforce page for more details.
