Community activation
Community activation supports us to make healthy choices in our daily lives, being active, eating healthily and feeling safe and well connected.
Healthy place shaping involves working closely with a wide range of partners including schools, businesses, health and care providers, the voluntary sector, housing developers and academic partners, and district and City councils. The partners co-design and deliver a programme of initiatives that will support residents to promote their health and wellbeing and feel a sense of belonging to their community.
Activity is often focused on increasing the capacity of new and existing community groups by connecting partners and strengthening social networks in the town.
Healthy eating
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is important for maintaining good health and can help you feel your best.
This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions, and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain healthy body weight.
The key to a healthy diet is to eat the right amount of calories for your level of activity so that you balance the energy you consume with the energy you use.
The Eatwell Guide shows that to have a healthy, balanced diet, people should try to:
- eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day (see 5 A Day)
- base meals on higher fibre starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta
- have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks)
- eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein
- choose unsaturated oils and spreads, and eat them in small amounts
- drink plenty of fluids (at least 6 to 8 glasses a day)
If you're having foods and drinks high in fat, salt and sugar, have these less often and in small amounts.
- More information about healthy eating is on the NHS website
- Local support for achieving a healthy weight
Being active
Being physically active can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer and lower your risk of early death by up to 30%.
It's free, easy to take, has an immediate effect and you don't need a GP to get some. Being more active is easier than you think, especially if you make activity part of your daily routine.
The amount of activity you need to do each week depends on your age.
Check physical activity guidelines for:
- children (under 5 years)
- children and young people (5 to 18 years)
- exercise (adults 19 to 64 years)
- older adults (65 years and over)
Connecting with your community
Being part of a community can positively affect your mental health and emotional well-being.
Community involvement can help give meaning and purpose to everyday life, and taking part in local activities can boost one's sense of belonging and social connectedness.
It can include:
- volunteer-run interest groups and issue-based initiatives
- individual actions can include participating in a local health walk, shopping in your local market, or volunteering for a ‘litter pick’
The pandemic has shown the importance of such community action in meeting challenges and needs and the great value of neighbours supporting each other.
For information on local opportunities for getting involved with your community https://ocva.org.uk/ and https://www.communityfirstoxon.org/community-action-and-volunteering/
Getting out and about in Nature is great for your physical and mental health and wellbeing. The Local Nature Partnership and Wild Oxfordshire have created a map of local opportunities to get involved with activities that enable you to connect with nature.
Local advice on how to look after your mental wellbeing
Healthy workplaces
Evidence shows that good work is good for health and it is considered one of the factors in the wider determinants of health that affects individuals, their families and the wider community.
Initiatives to promote workplace health and wellbeing are aimed at managing sickness absence and presenteeism. The loss of working days caused by ill health including mental health issues is well documented and so are the links between initiatives to address to promote health and wellbeing and the resulting benefits to business.
By engaging with local employers and business networks, we can create a culture where employee well-being is at the heart of the organisation, regardless of size.
Healthy schools
Enjoying a great start in life is important for children’s health and well-being and for their future health as adults.
Schools, pre-schools and nurseries have an important role to play with parents in encouraging children to develop healthy habits that will enable them to be healthy and to prevent poor health and well-being in later life. If you are interested in how your school or nursery can encourage parents to walk or cycle their children to school, please learn more about our school streets programme.
Being active starts with how children travel to school, walking, cycling or scooting helps them to build being active into their daily routine. Active travel in Oxfordshire.
Initiatives at school, such as The Daily Mile, are good for children’s attainment and also make them happier and healthier.
Has your school taken part in the ‘healthy schools’ rating scheme? It’s a tool to help schools improve the health and well-being of their pupils and whilst its voluntary, it shows both parents and Ofsted how committed schools are to promoting healthy eating and physical activity.