Purpose: A simple ballgame played by mothers at their children's schools in one Israeli town in 2001 has evolved to a mother-players league currently in 90 Israelis cities involving 10,000 mothers spreading to Austria, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and the USA. This presentation will describe how “Mamanet” was made a sustainable sport and present the first scientific evaluation of its impact.

Methods: First, we review the driving force behind Mamanet as an organisation, social agenda and milestones in uptake and reach. Second, we present the intrinsic values for mother-players “in their own voice” using a short video. Last, we present research outcomes from a follow-up comparative study of participating and non-participating mothers (n=316) in relation to social capital (social support, social involvement and trust) and well-being (somatic symptoms, self-reported health (SRH) and self-reported depressive symptoms). 

Results: Mamanet became a way of life for many women who otherwise will stay at home. Volunteers gaining support from mayors run the organisation.  It is inclusive movement encompassing all ages (Mamanet Gold, teenagers), cultural background (Arab and Jewish women playing together) and abilities (e.g.,people with intellectual disability). Research showed that women participating in the Mamanet league had higher social capital and SRH scores than the control group to begin with. Over time, participation in the "Mamanet" League seems to have an effect on two of the three social capital measures: social support and social involvement, showing an increase among the "Mamanet" group and no change in the control group. No change was found for ‘trust’ in both groups. For the well-being measures, participation in the "Mamanet" league had no significant effect for levels of well-being.

Conclusion: While women choosing to participate in the "Mamanet" league had better measures of well-being and social capital at baseline, this may not truly represent the all participants. Unfortunately, there is no system that records participant characteristics, hampering evaluation. However, this primary study suggest that participation in the league increased social support and social involvement, which is a major driving force of its sustainability over 17 years.

Purpose

Behaviour change research typically involves investigator-led development of structured interventions in controlled environments. This contradicts established practice in community development, which acknowledges local autonomy in intervention design to create meaningful and sustainable change. We explored this disconnect through the lens of the “Locally Led Approach (LLA)” to physical activity intervention development that has been implemented by Sport New Zealand and its 14 partner Regional Sports Trusts (RSTs) since 2016.

Methods

Mixed methods evaluation assessing implementation approach and its impact on practice across the sector. We used appreciative enquiry to collect information from key stakeholders within each RST through semi-structured interviews with senior managers and focus groups with program staff. Further interviews were conducted with community leaders and program participants from six purposively selected case studies. This was triangulated with annual monitoring of quantitative indicators for the five established principles of the LLA using existing survey vehicles and a self-assessment rubric completed by RST personnel.

Results

Application of the LLA principles was deemed critical to community ownership and subsequent sustainability of the initiatives developed. Three of the principles were already partly embedded in the practice of RSTs prior to 2016: 1) “Understand your community”; 2) “Work in partnership”; 3) “Learn as you go”. However, the clear articulation and prioritisation of these principles by Sport New Zealand has improved practice – indicators that these principles were being applied after one year increased from 68% (range: 50-85%) to 80% (range: 73-87%) after two years. There were two novel LLA principles to the RSTs which have taken longer to be consolidated into practice: 4) “Focus on strengths and assets”; 5) “Enable leadership”. An emergent theme was that these principles are scalable, but not the specific intervention components that each different community independently developed.

Conclusions

Although notions of community-led physical activity programming previously existed within RSTs, the principles of the LLA represent a genuine shift in sustainable intervention design. The diversity in initiatives that result from applying the LLA indicates that scaling up interventions should focus on applying the underlying LLA principles rather than replicating specific intervention components.

Purpose:

parkrun is the largest freely accessible and organised community-based physical activity initiative globally. It comprises weekly 5km running/walking events that occur in local green spaces and are coordinated by local volunteers. There are few previous examples of weekly physical activity interventions that have grown so rapidly and had such global appeal. parkrun started with 13 runners and 5 volunteers at one location in the United Kingdom in 2004 and has since grown to an international community of over 3 million people across 22 countries. The aim of this research is to review the evidence on the rapidly expanding global reach of parkrun and explore the reasons for its unprecedented organic growth.

Method:

We conducted a scoping review of published literature for parkrun. We used the sole search term “parkrun” and searched MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus and several grey literature databases. All identified studies addressing the reach and impact of parkrun were included in the review and emergent themes were reported.

Results:

We identified three studies that described parkrun reach and five studies that explored the mechanisms by which parkrun was attracting, retaining and impacting participants. parkrun has effectively reached some typically less active population groups (i.e. women, older people, low previous experience of walking/running), people from lower socio-economic status and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented. The popularity of parkrun has primarily been attributed to accessibility, and participation is self-regulated within a diverse group of walking/running ability. The average parkrun time is slowing globally despite marked improvements for those who participate regularly, suggesting parkrun is attracting more people who are less active at the outset. The social and civic engagement associated with parkrun along with the sense of achievement also contribute to retention of participants.

Conclusion:

The reach and popularity of parkrun has prompted its organic dissemination and uptake globally. This is largely underpinned by its simplicity and its appeal across the lifespan to several previously inactive populations as well as the social opportunity it provides for participants. The result is a self-scaling public health intervention that continues to grow.