Active Canterbury
Targets and objectives
The project’s core objective is to increase physical activity among adults across Canterbury, including those in low income, Maori and Pacific households.
Because it was difficult to find statistical benchmarks for physical activity in the area the project covers, the project targets are not demographic. Instead, the emphasis is on delivering the resources, expanding hits to the website, and then measuring and building use of the resources and user satisfaction.
The number of hits to the recently launched Active Canterbury website is around 3,500 for September and 4,000 for October 2007. By using a Google analytic site, Active Canterbury learned there are around 900 unique users each month. The site also allows measurement of peaks in traffic, which have corresponded with the letterbox drops in the marketing campaign. The project team continues to build a picture of what targets are realistic, and what benchmarks are appropriate. This includes measuring usage of the easy promotion tool.
Another key step toward meeting the core objectives has been ensuring the professionals use the tools. So far:
- 70 physical activity providers have attended training sessions
- approximately 100 general practices have been visited and provided with tools kits and training.
Active Canterbury are building a database of these people and organisations. This database will be studied to determine the reach of the project and uptake of the tools.
The evaluation resources in the online resource (available in hard copy in the toolkit and as a PDF on the website www.activecanterbury.org.nz/PhysicalActivityProfessionals) measure the effectiveness of a programme or of specific classes in increasing physical activity levels among individual participants. The evaluation process is administered by physical activity professionals in conjunction with programme participants.
Getting perspective on budgets and project costing
Total project revenue for Active Canterbury over a three-year term is around $546,000. Of this total, $370,000 comes from a SPARC Active Communities investment and $176,000 from project partners.
The following chart (figure 1) gives an indication of how such a budget might be allocated. The chart shows the relative weight of the different parts of the project spend to date.
Figure 1: Active Canterbury project budget
Project collaboration makes the difference
What sets this project apart is the approach – reaching the public by providing support and information to physical activity and health providers. This method has included techniques like educating practice nurses and related professionals, and developing resources and tools in partnership with both professionals and the public.
The project has also required high levels of regional co-ordination between the project partners. It is a collective effort by a range of groups aiming to improve access to information about the benefits of physical activity to providers and the general public. There is recognition among the partners that greater levels of collaboration were crucial to achieve these shared goals, be successful, and maximise resources.
A major spin-off has been the increased range of organisations working together and considering each other in their project planning.
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Updated | 18 Dec 2007.
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