Get active, feel good

Supporting women in South Asian communities to stay well

Get Set to Go is a programme run by Mind to help people with mental health problems feel the physical, social and mental benefits of being active. It’s supported by Sport England and the National Lottery.

As part of the programme, in March 2017, we ran a ‘Get active, feel good’ messaging campaign, targeting women from South Asian communities, who have the lowest participation in weekly sport of any group. The campaign was developed with representatives from Sporting Equals, Asian Sports Foundation, Black and Minority Ethnic Coaches Association, Sport England, Sheffield University and Rochdale and District Mind.

We also engaged with over 50 women from South Asian communities at a Diwali event at Stanmore Temple, discussing mental wellbeing and physical activity barriers. The campaign was designed to raise awareness of importance of physical activity for mental health, especially for South Asian women. We also promoted Mind’s information, encouraged people to become more active and spread the word about Elefriends, our online peer support community.

In total, we reached closed to 900,000 people through the campaign – with activities that ranged from giving out flyers at South Asian women’s groups to creating the Mind Wellbeing Award at Sporting Equals’ British Ethnic Diversity in Sports Awards.

It helped us both to engage with new audiences and to build partnerships to keep growing our work with South Asian communities.