Beat the Streetis a community initiative designed to get entire communities active.
It is evidence based, leading to long term behaviour change byoffering incentives; walking, cycling, and running between “beatboxes”provides points which lead to prizes.
Players do not have to register to play, but by doing so they become eligible to win prizes, and join teams to compete against one another for some healthy competition!
14,000 people played, and of those, 6101 people registered, answering a series of health and wellbeing questions, as well as information about their current levels of physical activity and sleep quality. This provided us with valuable data about the types of people playing the game, as well as baseline information regarding activity levels.
Over the course of 7 weeks, Colchester was set the target of reaching 75,000 miles so that a chosen charity would receive a donation. This target was overwhelmingly exceeded, with almost 14,000 people travelling just under 100,000 miles!
As a result, a cheque for £600 was awarded to local charity, the Youth Enquiry Service (y.e.s).
me, thanks to Colchester overwhelmingly exceeding the 75,000 mile target that was set.
Thank you Colchester!
Celebrating Colchester’s success
To kick off the next stage of the project, we were absolutely delighted to celebrate the achievements of all those who took part in Beat the Street!Special thanks to the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress of Colchester who attended the event to congratulate all of the winners.
Around 100 people attended, where prizes were awarded to all the worthy winners of the game, and so many inspiring community stories were shared.
We had some wonderfully diverse winners in Colchester. Two schools were 1st and 2nd on the Overall Leaderboard, whilst all of our other winners were community teams.
Overall Leaderboard
1st Place - St John’s Green Primary School
2nd Place St Thomas More Catholic Primary School
3rd Place Running Colchester GOSH
Average Leaderboard
1st Place Team2gether
2nd Place Running Colchester GOSH
3rd Place Boxted Beaters
Running Colchester are an online community for local runners, and set up a Beat the Street team to fundraise for charity.They have been continuing regular runs together with different leaders each week, all off the back of Beat the Street.
Team 2gether is a running group working to promote exercise and its benefits on mental well-being. Members are a mix of not only those with a variety of mental health issues, but anyone wanting to help support and mentor other runners.
The Boxted Beaters are a group of friends who attend Boxted Women’s Institute and they aim to reinstate a walking group in their area.
A fantastic day, and a hugely uplifting start to the sustain phase.
Sustain phase
Having been successful infacilitating so many people to be more physically active during the game, how do we sustain those changes?
The social media pages are still open, with over 1200 followers on Facebook, and the newsletters continue, which go out to all of the registered players. Via these channels, we are able toshare information about predominantly free activities availablelocally, and local engagement is ongoing to encourage more people to sign up to the newsletter.
We have also developed and are continuing to build a fantastic network of Beat the Street Friends; people in the community who are advocates for physical activity. They can do this by various means; from promoting activity in their everyday conversations and social media or sharing their stories of activity with BTS to promote, becoming ambassadors for This Girl Can, blogging about activity, or leading walks or runs.
We have organised a special Xmas Walking Trail and are working closely with Active Essex on a This Girl Can festival to facilitate more women to try new activities. Considerations are also being made around how to best utilise and promote some of the fantastic walks and green spaces in the area.
Many inspiring stories were displayed at the celebration event and these stories are now touring Colchesterto inspire others!
In addition, lot of ideas are being considered around how to promote workplace wellbeing off the back of the game, with the benefits of physical activity on mental health akey component in supporting a happier and healthier workforce.
The game has been a huge success inbringing the community together, and creating a springboard to increase the community’s activity levels. Watch this space for updates and contact if you are interested in becoming a Beat the Street Friend, to support the legacy of the game!
me, thanks to Colchester overwhelmingly exceeding the 75,000 mile target that was set.
Thank you Colchester!
So what now? Do you want to be part of the legacy of the game? What are you doing now that the game is over to keep moving? What activities would you like to see in Colchester?
Message us to find out more about becoming a Beat the Street Friend!
Enjoy Colchester
Team 2gether
@runningcolchester
Community360
#livewellcol