Designing Out Inactivity: Together Active’s Strategy for 2024-2030

At Together Active, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to live an active, healthy life. But for many people in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, barriers such as low income, disability, mental health challenges, or systemic inequality make physical activity far from accessible. Our new strategy for 2024-2030 focuses on changing that.

We’re committed to ‘designing out inactivity’; creating systems, environments, and opportunities where being active becomes a natural part of everyday life for everyone, regardless of their circumstances.

Why This Matters

Physical activity is about much more than health. It’s a way to connect, build resilience, and strengthen communities. Yet, people from underserved and excluded groups often face the biggest barriers to getting active. This doesn’t just impact individual wellbeing; it also widens inequalities and limits the potential of communities as a whole.

Our strategy takes aim at these barriers, focusing on creating fairer systems and working directly with communities to shape solutions that work for them.

Key Points of Our Strategy

Focusing on Underserved Communities
We will prioritise those most at risk of exclusion, including people with low or no income, those with disabilities, and individuals experiencing mental health challenges. By targeting the root causes of inactivity, we aim to create a level playing field.

Embedding Physical Activity into Health Pathways
Physical activity can play a crucial role in preventing and recovering from mental and physical health challenges. We’re working to make it a standard part of health and social care pathways, ensuring that people receive the support they need to stay active.

Strengthening Communities
We will work with local organisations and community leaders to ensure that physical activity becomes a tool for building social connections, fostering resilience, and improving wellbeing at a community level.

Collaborating for Systems Change
No one organisation can solve these challenges alone. We will work alongside local authorities, healthcare providers, charities, and businesses to ensure our collective impact is greater than the sum of its parts.

What Success Looks Like

By 2030, we want physical activity to feel like a normal, accessible part of daily life for everyone in our communities. This means:

• More people regularly active, especially from underserved groups.
• Communities strengthened by better health, resilience, and social connections.
• A system that prioritises physical activity as essential for wellbeing, health, and community development.

Join Us on This Journey

Our 2024-2030 strategy is ambitious because we believe it needs to be. Tackling inactivity is not just about individual choices; it’s about reshaping the systems, environments, and opportunities around us.

Together, we can make physical activity a part of everyday life for everyone.