Get to know Elissa
My role as Community Voice Officer puts people and communities who face the greatest challenges in accessing physical activity firmly at the heart of Together Active’s work. I listen to and learn from these communities, helping to ensure that more people can lead active lives.
What do Together Active’s values mean to you and your role?
These values are central to my work. I listen to communities with compassion, taking time to understand the barriers they face to physical activity and ensuring every voice is heard. Co-designing programmes requires collaboration and creativity, enabling us to develop new approaches that work for different communities.
What does Together Active’s mission mean to you?
We’re on a mission to ensure communities have the support and power to access physical activity, regardless of how or where they live. It’s about being the change that needs to happen and paving the way for others to follow, while truly putting the voices of our communities at the heart of everything we do.
What does inclusion and access in physical activity mean to you?
To me, it’s about moving away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach and not expecting people to engage just because something is available. It means understanding the barriers people currently face and using that insight to design pathways that remove them. It’s also about recognising that we’re not here to support just one type of person, but to work collectively with communities to understand what they want and need for physical activity to become part of everyday life.