The Moving Well Being Well project aims to increase physical activity and wellbeing in young children across Ireland. The project has just received a 100k boost to support physical literacy education in socially disadvantaged areas to help prevent anti-social behaviour later in life.

The project focuses on increasing physical literacy in children in order to give them the tools required to be active for life. The development of a range of basic movement skills, alongside nurturing the confidence and motivation to partake in activities involving these skills, can set children on a positive spiral of engagement in physical activity (PA) and sport participation. Alongside the established physical and mental health benefits, participation in PA and sport is well-documented to strongly correlates with decreases in anti-social behaviour.

The MWBW project aims to intervene early in life as a preventative measure. The immediate results will show increases in basic movement skill proficiency, along with increases in confidence and motivation towards being active and should also positively impact their wellbeing.

Stephen Behan of Insight@DCU explains the potential benefits: ‘All of these have a multitude of benefits, such as; the physical and mental health benefits that will come from increased PA, the increased self-perception and self-efficacy coming from mastery of these basic skills and an overall increased sense of wellbeing. However, the long term benefits should lead to increased sport participation in the teenage years, which in turn is likely to lead to a decrease in anti-social behaviour. While we do not suggest that this is a ‘silver bullet’ to prevent criminal behaviour, we strongly believe that this will set children up for success and help create safe and resilient communities.’

‘What makes MWBW different is the potential legacy effect of the project. An aim is to upskill coaches and teacher so that they can continue to have an impact in their communities after the project has ended.’

The collaborative nature of the project is also innovative. The previous iterations of the Moving Well Being Well project have had project partners, the GAA and Dublin GAA, as well as the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. The GAA are within many communities already, and this now gives them the opportunity to deliver an evidence-informed program within the LCSP schemes. The addition of the Insight SFI Research Centre of Data Analytics to the team will give a unique and novel approach to analysing the impact of the intervention. The collaboration will bring the unique expertise of the national research centre for data analytics, the community infrastructure and expertise of the GAA, and combined with the domain specific knowledge of DCU, all with the aim of setting children up for a better future and providing them with the tools to be active for life.

Find out more about the MWBW Fundamental Skills programme