Most recent Healthy Heart projects

We had over 230 applications for our last round of Healthy Heart Grants, many demonstrating the innovative approaches groups around the UK are taking to help keep the hearts of the community healthy. Five projects were awarded grants totalling over £47,000.

Everton in the Community, Everton
‘Look After Your Heart, Look After Your Soul’ - £9,760

Men from Liverpool will improve their heart health by taking part in a range of sporting activities and fitness. The ‘Look After Your Heart, Look After Your Soul’ project is being run by Everton Football Club's official charity Everton in the Community alongside the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).
 
The project will work with men from the most deprived areas of Liverpool who tend not to engage with health services. Participants will be able to improve their heart health by taking part in weekly football, boxing and circuit training sessions. There will also be an intensive 12 week programme of fitness and in-depth health screening for men who are at high risk of heart disease, such as those who are obese, homeless or recovering from drug use.

Sport 4 Life UK, Birmingham
‘Get Heart Active’ - £9,700

Overweight mothers and their young children, from five deprived inner-city wards in Birmingham, will learn how to keep their hearts healthy through an interactive fitness project. This free programme will work with underprivileged and unhealthy mothers and their children, aged 18 months – three years old. The project will teach them about the links between obesity, physical inactivity and how the two together can lead to poor heart health. Activities will include fun physical exercise games with Healthy Heart themes such as relay, ball and parachute games, cheerleading and the ‘my heart’ song that will encourage families to get singing and dancing to learn about the heart.

Catch 22 – Kings Norton Positive Futures, Birmingham
‘Love Your Heart’ - £9,560

Young people from the Kings Norton Estates will learn how to keep their hearts healthy through an exciting new project. The 12 month ‘Love your Heart’ programme is aimed at eight to 19 year olds and has three heart healthy messages: ‘Fuel your Heart’, where they will learn how to cook ‘hearty’ affordable meals and find out about the dangers of foods high in fat and salt. ‘Move your Heart’ will encourage participants to get their hearts pumping through regular physical activities that they can also do at home. The project will culminate in a ‘Love your Heart’ fun run, to be held around Valentine’s Day next year, and will involve the whole community.

Insight Radio, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff and London
‘Heart Matters’ - £9,114

Insight Radio, the official radio station of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), will be broadcasting a brand new series of inspiring Healthy Heart programmes to their blind and partially sighted listeners. The ‘Heart Matters’ series will include a mixture of interviews, advice slots, outside broadcasts and pre-recorded features, that will be aired as 15 minute episodes. Listeners will also be able to access the ‘listen again’ podcast as well as a dedicated ‘Heart Matters’ web page. The programmes will give advice and support on how to be heart healthy, not just for blind and partially sighted listeners, but also for their sighted friends, relatives and carers, and health organisations who tune in to the station.

Age Concern Southampton, Southampton
‘Change of Heart’ - £ 9140

Men and women aged over 50 and BME (Black and Minority Ethic) community groups, living in Southampton, will have their attitudes to exercise and healthy eating challenged through a Healthy Heart programme funded by national heart charity, Heart Research UK. This new ‘Change of Heart’ programme will encourage Southampton residents to get ‘walking, talking, eating and growing’ for their heart health.
Those involved will get the chance to focus on heart health through a range of activities including  brisk walks in local parks, workshops on heart health with specialist speakers, cookery sessions and growing their own vegetables in the community garden. They will also publish a recipe book, featuring tasty recipes from around the world that have been adapted for a Healthy Heart.