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'A new urban trail for the people of Woodhouse Park'   The Community Research Team has been working on how to make Woodhouse Park a healthier place since the Summer of 2021. They produced an exciting ‘Vision for a Healthier Woodhouse Park’ and presented it to 150 local residents last October for feedback. In 2022, the team has decided to make some of the ideas into reality, starting with the Walking Trail.   Heart & Soul Wellbeing Trail is a permanent, multi-purpose, around 5-mile (8.4 kilometre) walking trail, shaped like a figure of eight, stretching across the Woodhouse Park area.   It has been designed for everyone, to help local people get out and about and enjoy walking. It’s for young people, families, older people and disabled people. It links up different areas and community facilities in Woodhouse Park – including schools, shops, parks, leisure facilities and woods.   It can be walked in short, easy sections, or you can walk the whole thing, if you’re more adventurous!   The Walking Trail is in its first trial phase and we have made a paper map, which will be available for download soon or picked up various places in Woodhouse Park including Lifestyle Centre, The Forum and Woodhouse Park Family Centre.   The map shows five routes, but you can walk it however you like. They are: the whole trail, Little Loop, Big Loop, Parks Route and Woods Route.   Heart & Soul wellbeing trail guided walks: Come along and try out the trail with us this July. We are hosting three guided walks aimed at different groups:   good mood walk: - Friday 8 July - 2pm - 4 pm - FREE - Meet at The Forum at 1:45pm - Light refreshments provided "A friendly walk, open to all, to help you get out in the fresh air, socialise with others, and find peace in the green spaces on the trail". storytelling walk: - Thursday 14 July - 1pm – 2.30pm - FREE - Meet at Woodhouse Park Family Centre at 1pm "There’s a Shark in the Park’ storytelling walk, for parents and under 5s. Come with us on this storytelling adventure: with 3 parks, 1.5 miles, 3,000 steps, swings, slides and sharks!" summer stroll: - Wednesday 20 July - 10.30am – 12pm - FREE - Meet at The Forum at 10.15am - Light refreshments provided "A gentle, enjoyable stroll, with places to pause, for stretching your legs, meeting new people, chatting and relaxing outdoors".   You can download the full Wellbeing Trail Map here september 2022: We’d really like to hear what you think about the new Walking Trail. We are also looking for new members to join the Community Research Team. In September, we will be holding Heart & Soul workshops continue to develop and improve the Trail, as well as starting on new projects to make Woodhouse Park a healthier place. Get in touch with us to go on our mailing list, to find out workshop dates.

PRO-NOCTIS AND WIV SUNGOD CROWNED SPORTSBREAKS.COM TOUR SERIES CHAMPIONS IN MANCHESTER Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen and Wiv SunGod were crowned Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series champions in Manchester city centre on Tuesday night after three weeks of competition.   For Wiv SunGod it was a third series title, having claimed the honours in 2018 and 2019, while for the Pro-Noctis team of British circuit race champion Jo Tindley it was a first crown, having been narrowly denied in the final event in 2021.   Second place on the night behind Team Boompods ensured the inaugural title for Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen, a comfortable victory having finished in the top two positions at all seven rounds and held the lead from round one in Guisborough.    Wiv SunGod, who also have led the series since the opening event, sealed their title in style with Matt Bostock winning his second round of 2022 by 11.5 seconds at the head of a team 1-2-3. For full results please click here.   Highlights of the Grand Final of the Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series from Manchester will be broadcast on ITV4 at 7pm on Wednesday 25 May and available on demand via the ITV Hub for 30 days.

Winning Hearts and Minds is a programme which aims to improve the mental and heart health of people living in Manchester.  Winning Hearts and Minds have just released their latest report – ‘Be Brave: Building Community Led Initiatives in North Manchester’ - documenting their learning over 2019-2021. The programme is a multi-agency, whole system approach, with more intense work in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, in order to improve outcomes, reduce health inequities across Manchester. In 2018, data showed that Manchester had some of the poorest heart and mental health outcomes in England. Manchester’s Population Health Plan described the three lifestyle behaviours that led to the four long-term health conditions that cause the large majority of preventable deaths (3-4-50 Framework).  We also knew things like where you live, your ethnicity, or your income, were having a huge impact on how healthy Manchester residents were. These health inequalities were only getting worse too, so we knew that we needed to do something completely different. AIMS FOR MANCHESTER COMMUNITIES - To improve the conditions that create health in the most socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods - To reduce levels of inactivity (i.e. reduce the no. of adults undertaking less than 30mins of moderate-vigorous activity per week) - To reduce the number of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events - To improve the physical health of people with Severe and Enduring Mental Illness (SMI) - To strengthen connections, relationships and collective action for healthy lifestyles.   BE BRAVE: BUILDING COMMUNITY LED INITIATIVES IN NORTH MANCHESTER Community Led Initiatives has been underway since 2019, and so, halfway through the programme, we decided to put our work so far into a report to share what we’ve learnt so far. We took our learning, and created a Winning Hearts and Minds Framework, which shows our ways of working and the approach we feel empowers communities to lead improvements to their own health and wellbeing. For a printed copy of the report, please contact c.dickenson@mcractive.com or n.clayton@mcractive.com.