Coan, S

Hanna, E

Leeds Beckett Repository

1  South Leeds Summer Fun Day  Report of joint collaboration between Health For All young dads group and the Centre for Men’s Health, Leeds Beckett University funded by Leeds ACTS Seedcorn funding              Authored by Dr Esmée Hanna, Centre for Men’s Health, Leeds Beckett University and Susan Coan, Centre for Health Promotion Research, Leeds Beckett University          2   Background  This project developed as a collaboration for Leeds ACTS seedcorn funding. The mutual interests of the Health For All (HFA) young dads group and the Centre for Men’s Health had previously been established, and Tom Senior of the young dads group and Esmée Hanna from the Centre for Men’s health had begun exploring how a partnership for working together could develop. The CommUNIty Campus Partnerships team in the Faculty of Health and Social Science at Leeds Beckett University further facilitated the joint working of this partnership (http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/community/). Seedcorn funding was applied for from Leeds ACTS in June 2015, and successfully awarded at the Leeds ACTS community vote.    Tom Senior, presenting collaboration idea at Leeds ACTS community vote.   The collaborative project aimed to run a summer fun day which would involve the HFA young dads group in the organising and running of the event. The event would offer free activities, which would have the remit of engaging the community in South Leeds in thinking and talking about health and wellbeing within a fun context.   The summer fun day   The summer fun day was advertised through a variety of means, including the networks within Health For All, via other community partners, local organisations within the Middleton area, such as children’s centres and care homes, as well as via social media. A variety of activities were planned for the day, with sports and activities being age inclusive, such as Crown Green Bowls with the local club in 3  Middleton. Children and families were the key audience for the event, with face painting and hook a duck being popular activities for younger children. Food was provided as a means for generating conversations around healthy eating practices, including the ‘Smoothie bike’ from Zest in Leeds, and other local provision, such as Leeds ‘Let’s get active’, and the HFA health trainers were invited to discuss lifestyle, fitness and wellbeing with those who attended the day.    Promotional flyer for Summer Fun Day.   As part of capturing thoughts about health and wellbeing, the academic partner conducted a brief, straightforward survey with the adults who attended the fun day. The survey explored questions about health and wellbeing, and rather than a numerical 1-10 scale, smiley faces were used to assist with creating a friendly and simple feel to the questionnaire which would be quick to complete in the context of the fun day setting. Local research ethics approval was obtained prior to the event, and participants were given information sheets regarding their participation being voluntary, their confidentiality, anonymity and right to withdraw. In total 21 people completed the survey, the results of which follow.   Health and wellbeing survey: Findings  In total 8 questions were asked in the survey (plus demographic characteristics), which involved 7 ‘smiley face’ questions, and one open ended question.  4   In terms of demographics, 13 women and 6 men completed the survey, with two participants not completing the box for gender. Of the 21 who completed the survey, the majority self-identified as White British (20) with 1 person identifying as Black Caribbean. The majority who completed the survey were under 40 years old: 5 people were aged 18-29, 7 were 30-39, 1 was 40-49, 5 were 50-59 and 2 were 60-69. One person did not complete their age group. The findings of the survey will be broken down by question:  1. In general, how would you say your health is?  Of the respondents, 13 people felt there health was good, with 8 saying it was ‘so, so’, and no one feeling their health was not very good. 2. Overall, how physically active are you?  The majority of people (11) said ‘so, so’ for how physically active they were, with a further 8 saying very physically active, and only 2 people reporting not being very physically active.  3. Overall, how healthy is your diet? Most people reported that their diet was ‘so, so’ in terms of healthiness (10), with very healthy being the second most common answer (7) and only 4 people reporting their diet was not very healthy.  4. Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? Most people survived felt ‘so, so’ about life satisfaction (9), with slightly fewer reporting feeling very satisfied with their life (8), 4 people reported feeling not very satisfied with their life nowadays.  5. Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? The majority of people felt things in their life were worthwhile (12), a further 9 reported feeling ‘so, so’ about how worthwhile their life was, and no one reported feeling that things in their life were not very worthwhile.  6. Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? The survey found that most reported feeling very happy yesterday (13), with only 2 people not feeling very happy, and the remainder (6) feeling ‘so, so’ in terms of their happiness the previous day. 7. Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?  Most people reported not feeling very anxious yesterday (12), although 2 people reported feeling very anxious the previous day, and 7 people felt ‘so, so’ in terms of their anxiety when they reflected on how they felt the day before.  Question 8 was an open ended question which asked:  ‘Are there any areas of health and wellbeing that you feel you would like more information or support about within your community?’ Four people completed responses to this question, which included one who noted they did not feel they needed any further information or support ‘at the moment’. One person suggested they would like help around ‘losing weight’, one wanted more health and wellbeing activities that were specifically 5  ‘for dads’ and the final comment related to ‘doctor’, which may indicate they required help and support about visiting the doctor, or perhaps that they would like the doctor to be more helpful or supportive, but this cannot be ascertained from the vagueness of the answer.    Children enjoying activities at summer fun day    6  The steel band play to welcome people to the summer fun day Conclusions   Overall, from the survey data, the people who attended the South Leeds Summer fun day, reported that mostly they felt their health was generally good (62%). Participants seemed to feel predominantly ‘so, so’ about how physically active they were (52%) and their diet (48%), perhaps showing that physical activity and diet remain areas in which people may benefit from further help and support about. In light of this, hopefully the inclusion of healthy eating and physical activity advice at the event will have been welcome additions to the fun day programme for those who attended.  The survey suggested that mostly people felt happy and that things in their life were worthwhile. Almost 20%, however, suggested they did not feel satisfied with their life nowadays, showing an underlying element of discontent for a fifth of participants who responded.  Anxiety appeared to be an area in which people noted feel less ‘well’, in that in total 43% of participants had either felt very anxious or ‘so, so’ in terms of their anxiety in relation to the previous day. This therefore shows that anxiety in various forms is present for a number of people who attended and may be an area of mental wellbeing in which people in South Leeds could be offered further support.  This survey is, however, a small snapshot of how those who attended the South Leeds Summer Fun day felt about their health and wellbeing, and further exploration of the community more broadly to establish patterns more firmly would be required before any wider conclusions could be draw. There are, however, positive health and wellbeing messages to be drawn from this small set of data.  In terms of the partnership, this project allowed Health For All young dads, and Leeds Beckett University to collaborate on a small scale project. This has enabled further cementing of the partnership around our mutual interests. Subsequent to the summer fun day, a successful Early Career research grant has been awarded to Dr Hanna which will involve exploring the value of group support for young dads, of which the Health For All young dads group will be one of the case studies. This will thus allow HFA and Leeds Beckett to continue their partnership and collaboration to the mutual benefit of both parties which has been a successful outcome of the seedcorn funding from Leeds ACTS.  

South Leeds Summer Fun Day Report

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