Loughborough University academics involved in impactful Walking Netball evaluation

Loughborough University academics involved in impactful Walking Netball evaluation back to News

England Netball has announced an extension of its partnership with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) following three successful years. The partnership focuses on empowering members of the WI to engage, increase activity and prevent social isolation through the governing body’s popular Walking Netball programme. 

This initiative was evaluated by a team of academics at Loughborough University and the team’s findings have been crucial in demonstrating the success of the programme. The team, consisting of Dr Florence Kinnafick, Dr Emma Adams and Dr Andrew Brinkley, carried out the evaluation over the last three years.

Some of the team’s other key findings include:

• 151 WI Walking Netball groups have been established to date.
• More than 50% of participants rated their satisfaction as ‘5 out of 5’ 12-months into the programme
• Average minutes per week of physical activity increased by 16 minutes and level of intensity increased by 11%.
• Before joining the programme 45% of the WI/WN participants met the national guidelines for activity after 12 months this had increased to 53%
• Mental health improved by 6%
• Social isolation reduced by 2%

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Posted on 8th July 2021