Success Stories
The scientific, evidence-based world of health means that - more than in any other
discipline - interventions which aim to encourage more people to walk are being
monitored and evaluated in detail. While this can sometimes cause a delay in health
authorities committing to the roll out of potentially life-saving initiatives, it
does mean that if it gets written up and the evidence is published, it is worth
investing.
Some of the most visible health projects, which are at various stages of evaluation,
are listed here for guidance. If you have been part of a health walk scheme that
you consider has been successful, whether it has been independently evaluated or
not please do
get in touch and share it with us. As evidence is published we will
keep these pages up to date, so come back often and do contribute to the
forums in the mean time if you have opinions about the validation of
any individual schemes.
Walking the way to Health Initiative (WHI)
is a National network of more than 500 health walk schemes offering led walks of
up to 2 miles, free-of-charge, suitable for complete beginners and open to everyone.
Coordinated by Natural England, the scheme also provides one-day training courses
for volunteer walk leaders and runs a National Step-O-Meter Programme
– encouraging the use of pedometers by the National Health Service as way
of motivating and encouraging some of the most sedentary and hard to reach of us
to walk more.
The Ramblers Association provide
many short walks of 2 to 5 miles at an easy pace, ideal for people who are relatively
fit or have been on health walks and now want something a little more challenging.
They also have a specific campaign called
Get Walking, Keep Walking, targeting 5 cities in England and designed
to help people learn more about the benefits of walking, discover their neighbourhood’s
hidden spaces and follow a 12-week walking plan.
Health and Sport England officials are working together to develop a London physical
activity campaign called www.5aweek.org. Its aim is to bring
together organisations involved in promoting physical activity with one message:
to increase the number of people achieving the Chief Medical Officer‘s guidelines
of five sessions of 30 minutes of physical activity per week. Watch this
short video for more information.