SUFFOLK’S YEAR OF WALKING

WHAT IS IT? Suffolk’s Year of Walking is a campaign celebrating walking in Suffolk. It provides a platform to promote walking events and activities, as well as providing inspiration and opportunities to encourage people to walk more often. It promotes walking in all its formats, from recreational walking to Nordic walking, from long distance walking to walking football and from walking to school and work to walking for health.

HOW DID IT COME ABOUT? Active for Life Suffolk Walking Strategy was launched in June 2015. It sets out a vision to increase the number of people walking in Suffolk, firmly establishing it as a normal form of transport for everyone. The strategy aims for walking to be seen as beneficial, easy, inclusive, accessible, pleasant and safe, and for walking to become the ‘default’ choice for journeys of 20 minutes walking time or less. The Suffolk Year of Walking is a direct response to this strategy.

Key components A range of headline events; Social media and internet presence; Media partnership; Calendar of over 300 events & opportunities; branded materials & resources.

Headline events – suffolk walking festival 2016 & 2017

2016 – 77 themed walks, ranging from a gentle stroll of 1 mile to a challenging 60 miles in 24 hours; 84% of participants from Suffolk; 1 in 4 participants joined the programme alone; 25% of participants indicated that the festival had encouraged them to increase their current level of physical activity; 2017 (13th May-14th June) – over 100 walks on offer;

Headline events – pigs gone wild Suffolk’s biggest ever mass- participation, public art event. The interactive sculpture trail featuring 40 pigs across Ipswich ran from 27 June to 2 September 2016. The pigs, beautifully decorated by artists, were on show for 10 weeks. They were joined by a sounder of junior pig sculptures designed by local school children, which appeared in litters across the town.

a fun, free walking game for the whole community. 46 Beat Boxes deployed; 4,457 players took part; 52,671.5 miles travelled; Strong engagement from communities living in areas of high deprivation and low deprivation; Over 13% of registered users had some kind of long term condition. 41% who reported having a long-term condition after Beat the Street felt that the game had helped with their condition; Nine out of ten people said Beat the Street had helped them to be more active (93%) and walk more than usual (92%); Nine out of ten people said they would try to continue the changes they had made after Beat the Street ended (90%).

Spin-offs Park and Stride Maps Walking Football Grants New walks and walking programmes Safe and Seen in Suffolk Reflector Campaign Walking themed activity at the Suffolk Show Stakeholder event themed around being active outdoors

Social media & internet presence www.suffolkyearofwalking.co.uk @SuffolkYOW #WalkSuffolk www.facebook.com/SuffolkYOW

Media partnership

Branded materials & resources A range of marketing materials (poster templates, banners, flags, etc.) that are made available to partners to enable them to align their activities to the Year of Walking.

learning The campaign has been effective in bringing people and organisations together; The campaign has raised the profile of walking in the county; Difficult to maintain profile for a full year; Lots of events would have happened anyway but badging them together gave them added profile and also stimulated new activity; Difficult to evaluate the campaign as a whole; Exit strategy needed for the end of the campaign.

Thank you www.suffolkyearofwalking.co.uk @SuffolkYoW #walksuffolk www.facebook.com/SuffolkYOW