Engaging with the Year of Health and Wellbeing
How partners can encourage engagement
There are many ways that partners can engage with the Year of Health and Wellbeing.
When considering how your organisation can engage, think about the different spheres of your influence to consider the varied approaches that you can take. This includes engaging directly with your staff, local communities or influencing changes for the county as a whole.
You should consider:
- the county - can you lobby for more strategic, systematic change?
- communities and your wider influence - how can the work that your organisation does influence local communities/residents?
- the networks and families of your staff - how can you encourage your staff to make changes that impact their networks and families?
- your organisation and its staff - how can you change your organisation's values and policies to influence or enable your staff?
Examples of engagement
Advocacy
Can your organisation advocate for changes in the food and drink industry to support action on childhood obesity?
Influencing communities
Engaging with nature can be very beneficial for mental wellbeing and can also increase physical activity.
How can your organisation contribute to improving Hampshire communities' access to green and blue spaces and removing barriers to those less able to access nature?
Resources:
- Improving Access to Greenspace (Public Health England)
- Making the most of green spaces for people’s health (beyondgreenspace.net)- further information and case study examples
- Nature and Mental Wellbeing (hants.gov) - local ideas to boost mood and be active in nature
- In the Workplace (hants.gov) - ideas for workplaces
Supporting and empowering staff and their networks
The Friends and Family Toolkit guide from Energise Me has lots of ideas for encouraging friends, family and personal networks to be more physically active. An example could include allowing flexible working hours to allow staff and their families to walk to school or other activities.
Organisational policies and culture
Action on the three priorities in your organisation could include a series of year-round communications providing guidance and information for staff on issues relating to improving physical activity and mental wellbeing. For further examples, see the Communications and Social Marketing guidance:
Communications and Social Marketing
See case studies and best practice guidance for more detailed information on the different ways that you can engage across the Year of Health and Wellbeing priorities:
Case studies and best practice guidance
Consider where you can commit to more short-term 'quick wins' or make longer-term commitments that will contribute to any of the three priority areas. Whether you take quick wins or more long-term measures, it is important that the action carries forward beyond one year and considerations of health and wellbeing continue to be embedded.
A good example of a quick win could be encouraging walking meetings across your organisation. This provides an opportunity to be physically active at work and can also help to make difficult conversations easier, promoting more physical activity and opportunities for aiding mental wellbeing.
Related themes
As well as the key drivers of the Hampshire 2050 Vision, there are several cross-cutting themes including engagement with young people and the use of digital innovation and technology.
Consider how you can build these cross-cutting themes into any ideas that you might have for the Year of Health and Wellbeing.