Everyone has a role to play in Somerset Moves; people, communities, and organisations, from every sector and place across the county, pulling together with a shared goal to help people move more and improve their lives in the process.
On Wednesday 17th September, 160 people gathered at The Canalside, Bridgwater for our annual partner engagement event, built around Somerset Moves – the strategy for the development of physical activity and sport across Somerset 2022–2030, with the theme – The Power of Place.
This event is always more than just a conference. It's a celebration and a catalyst: a chance to connect, convene and strengthen collaboration around the physical activity agenda in Somerset.
The day included a welcome and panel discussion hosted by Jane Knowles, CEO at SASP, setting the scene for the importance of working together. This year's panel included, James Watmough, Strategic Lead, Place Relationships at Sport England, Alison Bell, Director of Public Health in Somerset Council, Trudi Grant, Director of Population Health & Inequalities at Somerset ICB and Somerset GP Support Unit, Katherine Nolan, Chief Executive at Spark Somerset and Ken Masser, Director at Miova. The panel shared their insights around the NHS 10 year plan and the challenges the health sector faces but also the move to working in neighbourhoods and what this means for the system and ways of working.
The keynote from Ken Masserfounding director at Miova focused on the Power of Place. A powerful message around changing the narrative and focusing on what we love in and about our place and communities, with a shift of moving away from the deficit agenda of what we don't have. Ken said, "I think if we can harness more of that… "I know it's not perfect, but I'm going to act like it's incredible, invest in everything that's good and amplify what's great, then we can really unlock that power of place."
This year's event also saw a new format with the introduction of topical workshops. The morning workshops provided our attendees a chance to learn more in a wide range of topics related to Place-based whole system leadership, the new South West Physical Activity Campaign - Every Move Matters and the event also saw the launch of the Somerset VCFSE Insights Hub, a one-stop platform bringing together national, regional and local data to help charities and community groups strengthen funding, shape services, collaborate, and showcase impact. Attendees were able to get a demo of the platform and explore the data.
The afternoon workshops had a buzz around them and included topics on Storytelling to influence change, an introduction to theory of change: what it is, and how it can be useful to you! There was a workshop centred on providing Joyful Movement Every Day: Embedding Physical Activity Across All Aspects of School Life and finally Inclusion in Action: Unpacking Gender Identity Inequalities in Physical Activity. Thankyou to our partners for delivering these thought-provoking workshops, Spark Somerset, Active Devon, 2BU Somerset, realPE, Ken Masser and our very own SASP staff. It was a chance for attendees to explore the concepts and start conversations around these subject areas.
We also heard a powerful story from Charlie, Community Resilience Mentor at SASP, talking about his journey of using the SASP Jump Start service as a young person, to now working on the programme (employed by SASP) and mentoring young people. Charlie's story was very real and raw talking about his childhood experiences. The room was fixated on Charlies every word and it was fantastic to also have Jonathan Black, Executive Headteacher at Bridgwater College Academy in sharing his perspective and experiences of when he was headteacher at Charlie's school in Chard. A very emotive moment of the event and the main message from Charlie to the room was to always 'turn up', be that physically when working with young people and partners, but also in the mentality when working with communities, consistency is key. His story lifted the room and set the scene before taking time for facilitated networking and shared reflections to close the day.
We spoke with Claire Hunter, the Social Prescribing Manager at SASP and also workshop facilitator, on what today meant for her: "I think it's about understanding and respecting the people in the spaces that we have. It's really important we look at each area of Somerset on its own merit so we can assess and develop what it needs."
Jane Knowles, CEO of SASP concluded, "I loved hosting the Somerset Moves conference today! What a privilege to work in Somerset it is. I have a head buzzing with thoughts and different perspectives. Truly a day where so many people connected and collaborated to make the sum of the parts greater than the whole".
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us. Your contributions, energy and ideas will continue to shape the journey of Somerset Moves and strengthen our collective ambition to make movement part of everyday life, creating a happier and healthier Somerset.