Steps to health: An evaluation of a project to promote exercise and physical activity amongst Asian women in a post-industrial town in England

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of Steps to Health, a project undertaken in Bolton to improve the health of Asian women through the creation and promotion of opportunities for participation in exercise and physical activity. Asian communities in the United Kingdom tend to experience significantly poorer health than White communities and to exhibit lower rates of participation in exercise and sport than the majority population. The project thus offered an opportunity to explore methods through which community sport development managers might support the government's aim of increasing physical activity amongst Asian communities as a means of improving health. The research was conducted primarily through semi-structured interviews with female Asian volunteers who undertook to train as fitness instructors and coaches and to develop sport activities within their communities. The success of the project was attributable to a number of factors, most importantly the ethnic status and educational background of the volunteers.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council for granting permission to use the material in this paper and to thank in particular Sarah Poole of the Council's Sport, Health and Inclusion Service and Munisha Savania, the Steps to Health Project Development Worker, for their help in providing access to data and in arranging the interviews with the project volunteers.