Walking group in rural Vale of Glamorgan

Summary

Age Friendly Vale, working together with partners — Vale of Glamorgan Council Healthy Living Team, Valeways (a volunteer led walking charity), St. Athan Community Council, and local business The Three Horseshoes — developed a walking and social group in a rural area of the Vale of Glamorgan called St. Athan, an area that has a high demographic of older people.

The scheme was initially a pilot for 10 weeks to see whether it was successful and if so, it was agreed that a walk lead at Valeways would continue the fortnightly meet up and the walk could be added to the Valeways’ annual programme. This would allow other partners to hand over responsibility to Valeways and the local community, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the group.

The reason for beginning the group was to offer more activities for older people in rural St. Athan and provide an opportunity to increase physical activity, get outdoors in nature, prevent loneliness, and encourage social connection. This activity is free of charge and supports the Vale of Glamorgan’s Age Friendly Charter commitments and wider WHO Framework, specifically the age-friendly domains of social participation and community support and health services.

The first walk of the ‘St. Athan Strollers’ took place on 20th July from the Three Horseshoes, St. Athan, which is where the walk concludes. After the walk, strollers are invited into the ‘Shoes’ for free refreshments. Initially this was funded by the Vale of Glamorgan Council during the pilot and due to the success of the scheme, the local community Council have taken on this cost indefinitely. The first walk saw 9 people attend and this doubled with over 20 people on the fifth walk. The group is now a regular fixture and new walkers have joined other Valeways stroller groups and longer walks in the Vale.

Website: https://www.valeways.org.uk/

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): This is an accessible walk for those with mobility issues. Flat walks with no stiles or obstructions. Walking aids/poles are made available.

Sector(s): Health, Information and communication, Social protection

Other sector(s): Rural

Desired outcome for older people:
Be mobile

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Ageism
Accessibility
Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
Inclusion
Participation

Contact details

Name: Sian Clemett-Davies

Email address: snclemett-davies@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Volunteers

Others involved in the project:

Local authorities
Volunteers

How collaboration worked: To initiate the 10 week pilot, the project Lead – Age Friendly Officer met with the already established and well regarded volunteer walking charity Valeways. The group were looking to expand their stroller programme and had considered a rural area such as St. Athan but weren’t sure where they could meet for coffee after due to a lack of amenities. The Age Friendly Officer initiated contact with the Community Council who suggested a local public house that had recently reopened. The Age Friendly Officer then contacted the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Healthy Living Officer to explore the project further and see what support they could offer. After a joint meeting, agreement was reached by all partners to pilot the walk for 10 weeks (a walk every fortnight). The Age Friendly Officer ensured that funding for refreshments was secured. This was initially funded by the Council’s Healthy Living Team for the first 10 weeks and has been continued indefinitely by St. Athan Community Council following a successful pilot. To promote the new walking group, details were advertised by all partners on social media and posters were handed out and displayed in the local area and in the public house. A taster walk was also offered by all partners at an ‘Age Friendly Information and Social Event’ at St. Athan the day before the pilot launch. After the 10 week pilot concluded, the walking group and all responsibility was handed over to Valeways.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: Through various consultation at several events that took place during the beginning of 2023, older people reported they would like more opportunities to increase physical and mental wellbeing. Older people asked for opportunities to connect and socialise with others and said they would like to spend more time in nature. Throughout the pilot, the Age Friendly Officer engaged and talked with older people in the group to identify whether the scheme was successful. Positive feedback was gained.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? No

Feedback:
Positive feedback has been received from the group, walk leader and business owner. The increase in the number of strollers also demonstrates that the walk continues to be successful 6 months on. “Thank you again for supporting the new walks in St Athan – they are very well established now!” Stroller J. Chambers

Expansion plans:
We have offered support to Valeways in terms of getting another group set up but this is dependent on whether they can recruit new walk leaders/volunteers which is always a challenge.

Looking back

Reflections:
This was a fairly easy practice to establish. We would like to have identified a brand new volunteer walk lead from the community so that we could upskill and train them with the agreement of Valeways that they could support and fund the training of the volunteer. However there weren’t any volunteers at the time. I have recently found out that 4 people in the group are seriously considering becoming walk leads so this is positive. We were fortunate in that Valeways agreed that if the walk was successful they would continue to keep it on their programme regardless. On reflection, it would have been beneficial to document a formal evaluation and hand out a survey at the beginning and end of the pilot to identify the impact of the activity and get some quotes from the strollers, this would have helped to better understand the impact and give the activity more credence.

Challenges:
There were no major challenges. Maybe some initial trepidation from Valeways in regards to what was expected from them but good communication and a positive meeting changed this immediately. Valeways is now an invaluable Age Friendly Network partner and huge asset to the network.