This Sports Council for Wales project, involving Nigel Curry and Mike Clark, was undertaken in collaboration with the Education Department at the University of Bath. ‘Mentro Allan’ is one of the UK Community Sport Initiatives that, together with Big Lottery Funding, are designed to encourage sedentary people in various parts of Wales, to become more active.
The research was a two-year longitudinal study with both quantitative and qualitative elements. The former has charted the exercise behaviour patterns of participants in the scheme and has assessed the extent to which they have been modified as a result of active encouragement to increase exercise. The qualitative element is examining motivations and attitudes towards exercise with a view to making recommendations about how exercise uptake can be improved on a long-term basis. The importance of the outdoor environment as a motivation for exercise was explored as part of the study. The project ran from April 2009 to May 2011.
