Sharrow Community Forum

What are Health Champions?

Health Champions are local people who care about the health of their community and of those around them. They will champion health by raising awareness, signposting people to local health services or projects and providing support to those who need that little extra help.

They are volunteers from Sheffield's least healthy communities who are passionate about improving the health and well-being of their neighbours.

What kind of work would Health Champions do?

Health Champions work to promote health messages among local people, groups and organisations. Their role will include helping people to eat better and be more physically active, improving their mental health and generally providing ongoing pracitcal and moral support to encourage people to be healthier. 

To see some of the local health initiatives available to help out with, take a look at the Shipshape page.

What can you get out of becoming a Health Champion?

• Useful skills, knowledge and experience.
• Free training, including qualifications.
• At least 6 months work experience with a reference at the end.
• A chance to work as part of a team.
• Opportunities to share ideas with others.
• A voice in planning future health work in Sheffield, through a Network of Health Champions.
• The chance to make a difference to the health of people in your local community.

Have a look below to see more of what some of our health champions get up to...

Name: Amol Fori

Interests:

Healthy eating and Diabetes.

Activities:

• Raising awareness around eating healthily. Working with the Arabic women to help them look at adapting and making small positive lifestyle changes.
• Raising awareness about Diabetes and the kind of services that are available for people through Shipshape.

Name: Ahmed Shamin

Interests:    

Healthy Eating - Involved in raising awareness around healthy eating and stopping smoking. I want to support people in the local community, especially in the Bengali community. 

Activities:

• Going out and letting people know who I am and what support I can offer people in the community.
• I carry out a lot of one-to-one support with people about stopping smoking and looking at the benefits of healthy eating options.

Name: Shabnum Bashir

Interests:

• Physical activity.
• Increasing awareness of the importance of exercise.
• Reaching the hard to reach, people who are isolated and have barriers, with the aim of getting them into existing activities.

Activities:

• Finding out what is available in the area for people to access.
• Talking to the local people (especially women) to find out their views on exercise and what they would like to see in their area for their community.
• Supporting families in Sharrow with making small changes in their diet.
• Young Peoples summer sport activities at Mt Pleasant Park and running on Saturdays throughout the school holidays. This came out of working with their families!

"These young people and their families face a lot of barriers and don't attend any of the activities that are running - these sport activities will help them to understand the benefits of exercise, break the barriers and hopefully get them into youth clubs and Sheffield activities."

Name: Saimi Rehman

Interests:

Healthy Eating.

Activities:

• Running health checks at Medina Community Centre.
• Talking to women about joining the walking group that another Health Champion is running.
• Arranging and putting together a confidence building course for women I have come across.

"These women find it very difficult to come out of their houses and access any of the health services and do something for themselves because they faced a lot of barriers - some of these women have now found a step into opening their career doors and knowing about what services are available for them in their area."

To find out more please contact: