Big Way Of Life

During its second year, Carmarthenshire's Fit 4 Fun project has made an outstanding impact across the county both within schools and communities. At the end of Year 1, it was decided to amend the format in which Fit 4 Fun delivered it's activities, and they have been reaping the rewards ever since.

Rather than the initial remit of staging a mixture of large and small 'one-off' events, in Year 2 it was decided to stage events which take place over a number of sessions. This way Fit 4 Fun has had more success in achieving its aims and objectives of increasing awareness and participation and improving attitudes towards healthy living issues. Consequently, since the beginning of 2010, through the use of professional activity providers over 200 Fit 4 Fun activities have been staged. Through the staging of an array of healthy living events, the project was able to engage with hundreds of school children and thousands of people in various communities. These have included healthy cooking, circus skills, skateboarding, sports skills, relaxation, tatty bumpkin and a variety of dance sessions.

On average one event lasts 6 sessions, however Fit 4 Fun have set up community cooking clubs which run weekly over the course of the project and beyond. The aim of these clubs is to involve the parents as much as possible, by offering them training in order to develop the necessary skills which will enable them to run the clubs independently in the future. The clubs have proved to be an enormous success, with children developing a variety of cooking skills as well as positively changing their attitudes towards healthy eating.

As well as the session-based activities and clubs, Fit 4 Fun has also staged 'large' festival type events over the summer in partnership with local groups and community first bodies. These included, sports days, healthy living days and carnivals, all of which gave Fit 4 Fun the opportunity to showcase its fun activities.

Fit 4 Fun has also developed a comprehensive promotional campaign in order to help achieve the project's aims and objectives. The campaign is fronted by the project's unique mascot 'Fabian The Fruit Cocktail', who, as well as attending Fit 4 Fun events, provides the children with educational and fun resource packs and their very own lunch boxes. The highlight of the campaign this year, has seen the development of Fit 4 Fun's very own interactive online games in partnership with media company, Tinopils, where children take control of Fabian in fun-filled challenges against his arch nemesis, Dr Slob! The games will be available to play from Carmarthenshire Youth & Children's Association's website www.cycaonline.org before the end of 2010.

For more information about the Fit 4 Fun project, please contact Matthew Newbold or John Collard on 01554 757599 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .