About Make a Move
Make a Move is a long-term initiative to increase movement and improve health in Västra Götaland.
As a coalition of actors from different sectors of society, we share knowledge and create concrete actions that contribute to a more mobile society. We test new approaches and produce good examples that show that it is possible and encourage more people to follow suit.
The initiative started in the fall of 2021. It is project managed by RF-SISU Västra Götaland and is run with financial support from the Västra Götaland region. We offer coaching, training, lectures and access to knowledge and research in the field. This website is intended as a knowledge bank for everyone who wants to work with physical literacy in some way.
The goal is for people to see movement as a natural and positive part of life and to actively participate in society. Through Physical Literacy, we can help more people to make their best life journey. This in turn contributes to sustainable social development in line with the UN's 2030 Agenda.
The Movement Council in Västra Götaland
Make a Move has formed the Movement Council, a regional cooperation network of organizations in Västra Götaland. The council acts as a reference group where we exchange ideas and experiences, share knowledge, develop concrete activities, bring up physical literacy on the agenda in their own sector and spread knowledge about physical literacy and physical activity.
RF-SISU Västra Götaland
Oskar Wiklund
District Sports Manager RF-SISU Västra Götaland
RF-SISU Västra Götaland has a driving and coordinating role in Make a Move. We ensure progress and development in the movement council, support the work in the pilot municipalities and carry out certain concrete initiatives such as the movement initiative in schools (link good example of movement initiative in schools). RF-SISU's goal is to get as many people as possible to play sport for as much of their lives as possible: a challenge in a society where more and more people are becoming increasingly sedentary. We see physical literacy as a tool to help more people find sport and stay in it. We also want to support other actors to contribute to a physical activity-rich society.
City of Mölndal (pilot municipality)
Mats Lilienberg
Head of Administration Culture and Leisure
In Mölndal, we work very intensively with health as a strategy. Initially, this mainly involved children and young people, but has gradually been extended to include older people, with a focus on more healthy years. It suited us like a glove to become a pilot municipality in Make a Move. We have great opportunities to make it easier for people to move, through the activities we offer and the way we build the city. Now, more than half of all primary school children have increased physical activity in their schedules. We are working with our colleagues in the Public Works and Urban Services Department to build movement into the public realm, and we are working to increase movement among seniors through programs such as the Senior Sport School.
Lidköping municipality (pilot municipality)
Maria Hedén Sturesson
Head of Culture and Leisure
The municipality has carried out a major project to produce a master plan to develop Lidköping as a city. We also run the "Events and activities in the city center" project that will make more happen in the city center. We quickly agreed to become a pilot municipality and apply the Make a Move mindset in our work. Physical literacy has an obvious role in the municipality's public health mission. In concrete terms, we are implementing a physical activity initiative in schools and soon in preschools. We are developing an outdoor recreation program that will lower the thresholds for people to go out in our green areas, as well as new park environments and an activity area for young people in the center.
Region Västra Götaland
Sofia Nankler
Head of Operations, Center for Physical Activity
Region Västra Götaland is the main funder of Make a Move. The Center for Physical Activity supports the work with physical activity as prevention and treatment in student health, health and medical care. Make a Move is an important forum for us to contribute to a physically active and thus socially sustainable society: a cornerstone for the Västra Götaland region. We see broad collaboration as the key to achieving that society. In Make a Move, we are a multitude of actors operating in different arenas, providing different inputs but striving towards the same goal. Our role is to spread knowledge that the initiative exists to administrations, health care and ask how they themselves can work for greater physical literacy.
Region Västra Götaland
Anne Svensson
Regional Developer, Culture Administration
Participation in Make a Move links culture and health. The sharing of knowledge and the building of a common knowledge base is important. The link between culture, health and movement is very strong: encouraging the joy of movement through sport, dance, theater, music and circus all contribute to different forms of movement. With a diversity of movement forms, each individual can find their own expression whether it is sport, dance or other. Physical physical literacy is a prerequisite for culture, just as it is for sport.
Västra Götaland Parasport Federation
Stina Vikström
Sports Consultant
If Make a Move is to be an equal initiative for all the region's inhabitants, people with different types of disabilities need to be included. That's where parasport comes in: we put on the accessibility glasses, raise awareness and provide skills support. We have worked a lot with the word movement over the past ten years, as many people with disabilities do not feel included in the concepts of sport, sport and exercise. All people, regardless of their physical abilities, need to use their bodily functions to feel good.
County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland
Annika Lidström
Head of Unit Public Health and Rights
The County Administrative Board has a number of government assignments that are directly linked to Make a Move's focus on encouraging movement. We have assignments relating to community planning, public health and outdoor life where we need to get better at considering movement. As access to physical activity is unevenly distributed in society, the issue also affects our work on gender equality and human rights. The County Administrative Board can contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and good experiences, as we work throughout the county and have contacts with Sweden's other counties. But we also see that we ourselves bring many valuable lessons into our assignments.
University of Gothenburg, Department of Nutrition and Sports Science
Beatrix Algurén
Associate Professor of Sport Science
The Department of Nutrition, Food and Sport Science at the University of Gothenburg has a vision to "contribute to healthy and sustainable lifestyles". Being part of Make a Move and working together with other actors for a better public health, to further develop knowledge and practice to spread lifelong joy of movement, is a great example of cross-sectoral collaboration. As the leader of the Health Promotion research group, I see many opportunities for collaboration in the future that can be significant in reversing the trend of increasing mental illness and succeeding in promoting well-being in Sweden.
University of Gothenburg, Department of Nutrition and Sports Science
Anders Raustorp
Professor of Health Promotion with focus on physical activity
We train physical education teachers and sports coaches and conduct research on physical activity and nutrition. For the past 25 years, I have both written about and researched physical activity in children and young people, as well as the motor skills and self-esteem that are built. It determines whether or not the individual will continue to be physically active, which affects health throughout life. These are fundamental concepts in physical literacy, which is why we want to participate in Make a Move and contribute with our knowledge.
GoCo Health and Innovation City
Leif Nilsson
Senior Advisor
GoCo Health and Innovation City is a life science cluster being built in the area around Astra Zeneca, surrounded by a brand new urban development in Mölndal. Public health is a theme in the district. One of the most important factors for good public health is that we all learn to move, play sports and find community with other people. When developing new neighborhoods, it is important to create space for children and young people's movement in each area. One of my tasks as an advisor is to support the implementation of the Make a Move approach in urban development in Mölndal and elsewhere in the region.
Leisure bank
David Mathiasson
Manager Fritidsbanken Sweden
Fritidsbanken Sweden is a national actor working to contribute to increased physical activity for people of all ages: we create 21st century public libraries but with sports and leisure equipment. We want to help reverse the trend of increased sedentariness and lower the thresholds for movement in all its forms. In Västra Götaland, we have been tasked by the region to establish more leisure banks and develop the existing ones to have an even greater impact, so it suits us very well to participate in Make a Move. One of the first steps to starting a new activity is finding the equipment you need. This is where the Leisure Bank can help.
Pilot municipalities
The initiative includes two pilot municipalities, Lidköping and Mölndal. The municipalities are designing and testing new ways to develop a mobility-rich society in several different arenas, such as preschool, school, urban planning and physical environments, health care and sports and leisure activities. Each municipality has a project group, with a project manager who runs the initiative internally in the municipality. The experience gained from the pilot municipalities' efforts will form the basis of a model that can be applied elsewhere in the country in the future.
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