An Active Travel social prescribing project
NCVS is part of a new Active Travel social prescribing pilot project in Nottingham. Nottingham is one of 11 areas that has been identified to take part in a national trial that will give healthcare professionals and social prescribers the ability to refer patients to community-based services that promote walking, cycling and wheeling activities.
Locally, the service is called "Travel Well" and is helping people switch to a more active lifestyle to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. The project is taking place in Aspley, Beechdale, Bilborough, Bulwell, Sneinton, St Ann's and Strelley areas of Nottingham.
NCVS is working in partnership with Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City General Practice Alliance (NCGPA) to implement the project, supported by Sustrans, Ridewise, Nottingham Bikeworks and Women in Tandem, who are collectively providing adult cycle training, bike repairs, bike mechanic lessons, personalised walking and cycling route planning, and led walks and rides.
Three Travel Well Community Connectors are working directly with patients and within their local social prescribing teams to ensure referrals into the services are managed effectively and patients can be supported to access activities.
How is NCVS supporting the project?
The role of the NCVS team is to provide a central point of co-ordination for active travel social prescribing between the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and health partners.
We are:
- supporting local community groups and organisations to enable them to provide more opportunities for people to access walking and cycling activities.
- working to help Travel Well providers in their mission to upskill people within the target communities so that they can build walking and cycling activities into their current offering, through training for walk leaders, cycle leaders and bike maintenance teams.
- aiming to develop a network of community and volunteer champions to sustain a thriving, peer-led active travel movement that will last long beyond the reach of this project.
Our NCVS team is also working with communities to demonstrate how technology can be used to support activities and share routes, liaising with app developers to ensure the planned routes meet the needs of the community and providing training for groups to be able to create and upload their own walks.
The Go Jauntly app now contains a collection of Travel Well walks and routes across Nottingham which are available to everyone, and includes tips on nearby points of interest, places to eat, and public toilets.
The Go Jauntly app is available to download for free on the Apple App store or Google Play store. Download it, search for Nottingham, and you'll find the Travel Well routes.
Skills and specialisms we bring
There are many links with our previous GreenSpace green social prescribing project and we're delighted that the team behind GreenSpace (Kate Lisle and Laura Armitage) were able to continue their work with NCVS in new roles, now known as Active Travel Social Prescribing Community Development Coordinators. Or ATSP Community Development Coordinators for short!
This job title reflects the interconnectedness of these projects, and the continuity of personnel allows Travel Well to benefit from Kate and Laura's impressive contributions to the GreenSpace Test and Learn pilot.
Kate and Laura helped to create the Nottingham walking routes on the Go Jauntly app. Prior to this, they developed the GreenSpace NG app in collaboration with volunteer app developer Doug Colton, while working with our GreenSpace project.
The Greenspace NG app is designed to get people across Nottinghamshire out and about, experiencing the benefits of being outdoors while exploring the fabulous green spaces we have on offer around the county.
Laura moved on to become Strategic Walk Lead for Active Partners Trust in April 2024. Kate continues to drive the project forward at NCVS.
Travel Well editions of The Big Green Book
Special Travel Well editions of The Big Green Book have now been developed. These special editions, first made available in May 2024, are all about unleashing the active traveller in you, guiding you to connect with friendly, community-based teams and activities promoting walking, cycling, and wheeling.
There are three versions of the Travel Well Big Green Book, specific to the project's target areas, divided into Nottingham City West, Nottingham City North, and Nottingham City East.
View the Travel Well Big Green Books
The original Big Green Book is a directory of nature-based/outdoor activities across the city, developed by NCVS as part of our GreenSpace project. Designed for social prescribers, healthcare professionals and the general public, the book helps to link people with activities that can help to support and improve their mental and physical wellbeing. We continue to update and maintain that book on the NCVS website. View it here.
More information
For more information across the Travel Well partnership, including a calendar of activities in Nottingham, visit https://www.transportnottingham.com/travel-well
The project is funded by Active Travel England (ATE), the UK government’s executive agency responsible for making walking, wheeling and cycling the preferred choice for everyone to get around in England.
