The People’s Family Project, a community-based research project, was conducted as a joint project through Edge Hill University and Everton in the Community, the official charity of Everton Football Club.

The project worked with a range of families situated within a one-mile radius of Goodison Park with children aged between 3-11 years, initially offering a series of family fun days, followed by a 12-week, family-orientated intervention consisting of physical activity, social, nutritional and health education sessions.

Throughout the intervention period, the physical and mental wellbeing levels of participants were recorded, including physical activity, overall dietary quality, mental wellbeing, smoking and alcohol consumption. Interviews were also conducted with participants to gather their feedback on the effectiveness of the program.

The People’s Family Project discovered that the participants, despite being from a small geographical area, displayed visible difference in terms of their health behaviours and behaviour changes exhibited through the project. It appeared that the process of engaging in social physical activity through the project provided participants with emotional, informational, companionship and validation support and led to various physical, social and psychological benefits immediately following the intervention. These included: improvements in self-rated mental wellbeing scores, increased physical activity, improvements in diet and progression into employment, which were attributed largely to improved self-esteem, and sustained social interaction. Following the intervention period, long-term impact in the amount of moderate-vigorous exercise parents engaged in was demonstrated, however while mental wellbeing and dietary quality scores of parents were still elevated after 12 months, the difference in scores from pre-intervention to 12-month follow-up were not considered to be statistically significant.

The People’s Family Project has been completed, however further instances of the project would be welcomed. For more information about the project, please contact Laura Houghton, Project Lead, at Houghtol@edgehill.ac.uk.