Southwark Living – Participatory Data
Client Name Project Type Year Status Southwark Works Service User Evaluation Project Overview Southwark Living is an innovative pilot project exploring how residents can play a more meaningful role in
Wandsworth Moving Together
Client Name
Wandsworth Council
Project Type
Community Engagement
Year
2025
Status
Completed
Wandsworth Moving Together
Project Overview
Roehampton’s Alton Estate, one of the largest housing estates in the country, sits within an area shaped by long-standing health and social inequalities. The estate forms part of the Roehampton ward, where close to 40 percent of residents are from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, creating a diverse but often underserved local community. Surveys conducted on the estate indicate that around 17 percent of residents experience a long-term health problem or disability that limits their daily activities for a year or more. Levels of social isolation are also higher than the borough average, with many residents reporting limited access to consistent health-promoting opportunities.
These challenges reflect wider borough-level inequalities: in Wandsworth, people living in the most deprived areas experience significantly fewer years of healthy life than those in the least deprived areas — a gap of more than five years for both men and women. Preventive care also shows uneven uptake; for example, although more than 80 percent of eligible adults received an NHS Health Check invitation in recent years, fewer than 40 percent attended. Together, these patterns highlight a community where long-term conditions, lower physical activity levels and limited engagement with health services intersect.
It was within this context that the Wandsworth Moves Together project was launched early 2025. Commissioned through Wandsworth Council and supported by community partner Laura Bassett, the initiative aimed to bring the NHS Couch to 5K programme directly into the heart of the Alton Estate. The goal was not only to improve physical health, but to use movement as a doorway into social connection, confidence-building and awareness of local activities.
Sedulous was brought in to lead community engagement — acting as the bridge between the programme and residents. Our work focused on reaching people where they are, listening to the realities of everyday life on the estate, and encouraging participation in a way that felt welcoming and achievable. Alongside resident outreach, we built and strengthened relationships with local community spaces and organisations capable of supporting the programme, ensuring that the initiative was rooted in places residents already trust.
By combining public-health goals with place-based relationship building, Sedulous helped position the Couch to 5K programme not just as an exercise initiative, but as an accessible pathway into improved wellbeing, local belonging and ongoing community participation.
Why It Matters
The Wandsworth Moves Together project is more than a running programme. It responds directly to the lived realities of the Alton Estate, where health challenges and social isolation often overlap. By bringing an accessible, community-led activity onto the estate itself, the project supports residents in ways that go far beyond physical fitness:
- Creates accessible pathways into better health. Many residents face long-term health conditions and low physical activity levels. A free, beginner-friendly programme like Couch to 5K removes barriers and gives people a manageable starting point;
- Builds social connection in an area where isolation is high. Group activity provides a reason to meet, talk, encourage and show up for each other. For many, this is as valuable as the running itself;
- Strengthens trust between residents and local services. Consistent, face-to-face engagement helps people feel seen and heard, increasing confidence in local health and wellbeing initiatives;
- Increases awareness of local community spaces and activities. Many residents are unaware of what’s available on their doorstep. This project creates natural signposting into other groups, services and opportunities;
- Champions equity in a lower-income neighbourhood. By focusing on an area with significant socioeconomic disadvantage and poorer health outcomes, the project supports fairer access to wellbeing resources;
- Builds sustainable habits rather than one-off participation. Small, regular sessions embedded in the community make long-term behaviour change more achievable; and
- Creates momentum for wider neighbourhood improvement. When residents feel connected, active and involved, it often sparks interest in further collective action and local pride.
Together, these benefits show why a simple running initiative can become a powerful catalyst for health, connection and long-term community resilience on the Alton Estate.
Key Project Objectives
- Increase participation in physical activity by encouraging local residents to join and complete the NHS Couch to 5K programme.
- Improve health confidence by supporting people with long-term conditions or low activity levels to take the first steps toward healthier routines.
- Strengthen social connection by creating regular, friendly group sessions that reduce isolation and build a sense of belonging.
- Raise awareness of local services and spaces so residents feel informed about what is available within their own neighbourhood.
- Build trust between residents and local authorities through consistent, relationship-based engagement.
- Support long-term behaviour change by embedding activity within familiar and accessible community settings.
- Lay foundations for sustainable community wellbeing by connecting residents to ongoing opportunities beyond the project.
Our Approach
We approached this project with a clear commitment to meeting residents where they already are: in their neighbourhood, in their routines and in the places they feel most comfortable. Because this was a short, intensive piece of work, our focus was on laying strong foundations: building trust, raising awareness and creating the early momentum needed for longer-term participation.
Much of our engagement happened directly on the streets of the Alton Estate, speaking with residents informally as they went about their day. These conversations were essential for understanding people’s motivations, barriers, and perceptions of physical activity. They also allowed us to introduce the Couch to 5K programme in a relaxed, friendly way that didn’t feel like an official campaign landing on their doorstep.
To deepen our reach, we spent time in local community spaces — dropping into coffee mornings, information sessions and informal gatherings where residents naturally connect with one another. These spaces gave us the opportunity to build rapport and listen to people’s lived realities, which shaped how we framed the programme and encouraged participation.
We also reached out to local infrastructure: GP surgeries, pharmacies, foodbanks, cafés and pubs. We hung posters, spoke with staff, and built connections with business owners and frontline professionals who play an important role in signposting community members to activities that support their wellbeing. Although the project timeframe was brief, these touchpoints helped establish awareness across trusted local networks.
A defining element of our approach was our positionality as Lived Experience Consultants. Because we understand the complexities of health, community barriers and social disadvantage firsthand, residents were often more open, more honest and more willing to engage. This lived understanding allowed us to communicate in a way that felt relatable rather than clinical, and to build trust quickly in a community that has often felt overlooked or underserved.
Through this blend of street-level engagement, community presence and authentic relational work, we were able to create the conditions for residents to feel welcomed, informed and confident to take part — setting the groundwork for long-term community involvement in the programme.
Community Involvement
Community involvement sat at the heart of this project. Rather than simply promoting an activity, we worked to ensure residents felt ownership of the programme and understood that their experiences, motivations and concerns genuinely shaped how the initiative was delivered.
- Residents were involved from the earliest stages through informal conversations on the estate — on pathways, outside shops, at bus stops and in communal areas. These interactions helped us understand what people needed in order to feel confident taking part: reassurance that the sessions were beginner-friendly, clarity about what to expect, and encouragement that they would be supported rather than judged. Many residents shared personal stories about long-term health conditions, mobility challenges or previous negative experiences with structured exercise; these insights informed how we framed the programme and guided our outreach messaging.
- Local community spaces also played an active role. Coffee mornings, foodbanks and neighbourhood hubs provided more than just access points; they became places where residents could talk to us, voice their hopes or hesitations, and learn about the Couch to 5K programme in an environment they already trusted. Staff and volunteers in these spaces became informal ambassadors, signposting community members and helping to keep the programme visible.
- We also invited residents to contribute their ideas on how participation could feel more welcoming — from the best times of day for sessions, to what kind of encouragement would help them stay motivated, to how group activities could support social connection beyond physical exercise. These conversations were vital in shaping the tone and feel of the initiative, making it something built with the community rather than delivered to it..
Through this ongoing dialogue, the project grew into an asset the community could claim as their own. Even within a short time frame, residents helped co-create a sense of shared purpose: promoting health, building confidence, and strengthening local bonds. Their involvement didn’t just support uptake — it gave the initiative its energy, its direction and its staying power.
Partners & Funders
This project was delivered in partnership with Laura Bassett, who was contracted by Wandsworth Council to support the launch of the NHS Couch to 5K programme on the Alton Estate. Sedulous worked alongside Laura to provide dedicated community engagement expertise, ensuring that the initiative was rooted in local insight and accessible to residents who would benefit most.
Wandsworth Council’s investment in this work reflects its wider commitment to reducing health inequalities and strengthening community wellbeing across the borough. By combining the Council’s strategic leadership with Laura Bassett’s programme coordination and Sedulous’s lived-experience-led engagement, the project brought together the strengths of multiple partners to create an initiative responsive to the realities of the local community.
Our Team
What’s Next
While no further phases have been formally commissioned, this project has created a strong foundation for deeper community engagement across Roehampton and beyond. The relationships built with residents, local organisations and frontline services have established a network that can be reactivated and expanded as new opportunities arise. The visibility of the Couch to 5K initiative and the community confidence it generated has opened the door for ongoing health-promotion activities rooted in trust and local relevance.
There is strong potential for this model to be replicated on other estates across Wandsworth, particularly in areas where health inequalities and social isolation follow similar patterns. The approach demonstrated here lived-experience-led engagement, grounded presence in community spaces and collaboration with trusted local partners offers a blueprint for future programmes seeking to improve health and connection at neighbourhood level.
Sedulous remains ready to support the next phase of this work should partners wish to build on the momentum created. Even in its short form, this project has shown that small, place-based interventions can spark meaningful change when delivered with authenticity, trust and community insight.
Get in Touch!
If your organisation is looking to engage communities in a way that is authentic, grounded and built on trust, we’d love to hear from you. Sedulous specialises in lived-experience-led engagement that reaches people where they are and makes services more accessible, relatable and meaningful. Whether you’re exploring a new idea, planning a pilot, or seeking to strengthen relationships with local residents, we can help you design approaches that resonate and create lasting impact.
Reach out to us to start a conversation about how we can support your next community initiative. Real change begins with genuine connection and that’s what we do best.
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