We are proud and honoured to be working with Public Health Lewisham on the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme (COTP) over the next few months to design a set of posters that promote healthy eating and exercise participation within the community.
Along the process, we look forward to working with the local communities, Shared Intelligence, JCDecaux, Outsmart and ISBA to help deliver and dispatch these posters into the Lewisham community this summer.
The designed posters also will be featured on Lewisham Council’s 56 advertising locations, generating up to 2.2 million views in a week. It is a powerful tool to help fight childhood obesity and will be a great opportunity for us to see local children’s and people’s ideas come to life on Lewisham’s streets.
The need for this project
Lewisham has a high level of childhood and adult obesity. 21% of children in reception are overweight or obese, this rises to 37% in Year 6. For adults, the figure is 58% and the physical activity is similar to the national average.
In 2019, Lewisham Council was chosen as one of five national Trailblazer Authorities to receive funding to support the borough’s work to tackle childhood obesity.
Lewisham’s COTP aims to restrict advertising for products high in fat, sugar and salt whilst simultaneously developing and displaying health-promoting posters co-produced by communities across the borough.
Lewisham’s ambition is to halve childhood obesity rates by 2030 through the borough’s Whole Systems Approach to Obesity: changing the environment we live in by making healthier options the easiest choice for children and their families.
Working with the local Lewisham community
Throughout this project, we have planned to initiate a set of workshops with our existing partners within the local Evelyn Community Centre and Goldsmiths Community to gather research and feedback for the posters as well as discuss obesity and healthy lifestyle tips.
Last week, we initiated our first workshop that focused on research and idea generation. In groups, we created mind maps that explored keywords and imagery related to healthy eating and the causes of obesity. Later on in the session, we focused on what elements form a poster and each participant created initial sketches for a poster concept.
Working with the Inspire Lewisham
For this project, we have partnered with Inspire Lewisham to hire a Lewisham resident, who is over the age of 16 and economically inactive. We aim to provide them the essential support and guidance they need to develop their design skills whilst working on a real-life project brief. As well as design skills, they can also develop their organisational and team working skills which are all valuable assets needed to fulfil a job.
We look forward to continuing with our delivery partners in the coming weeks as our design ideas start to grow and flourish together to form a final set of posters that will be on display in the Lewisham community.
Discover more about this project
Find out more about the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme using the links below:
https://www.local.gov.uk/childhood-obesity-trailblazer-programme