The Wellness unLAOISed Innovation Project was a partnership project between True Fitness (now EduFIT) and Laois Sports Partnership. The overall aim of the Wellness unLAOISed project was to increase exercise participation rates in adults from economic, social and/or educational disadvantage in Laois. Additionally, the programme aimed to increase exercise, nutrition and health literacy and skills in our target group in order to increase the adoption and maintenance of exercise and other health enhancing behaviours in the long-term while being innovative in our approach.
The first Wellness unLAOISed Innovation Project took place over a 12-month period from September 2021 to September 2022. Following extensive testing and evaluation with users, EduFIT and Laois Sports Partnership were delighted to be supported again in 2024 by the Sport Ireland Innovation Fund, and our new partners, Offaly Sports Partnership.
You can read the reviews from both programmes below and/or listen to this audio testimonial from participants. This is not a one-to-one programme.
What is included in the programme?
The 12-week evidence-based programme consisted of:
- Two live online 60-minute multimodal (aerobic, strength, balance, and flexibility) exercise classes per week
- One live online 20-minute exercise education workshop per week.
- One live online 60-minute nutrition and/or health education or cooking practical per week, which were also recorded and made available to watch on-demand through the app.
Participants received numerous take-home resources (e.g., exercise circuit cards incorporating the use of QR codes and weekly recipes), weekly monitoring and support via email, phone or through the app and in-person focus groups were facilitated to promote uptake, sustain engagement, and obtain feedback and recommendations for app development. You can watch a 3-minute overview of the programme HERE.
Results
Following Wellness unLAOISed, our participants had increased aerobic fitness, upper- and lower-body muscular fitness, balance, physical activity participation, perceptions of physical health, mental health, and wellbeing and successfully co-created an exercise, health, and nutrition programme specific to their needs, which is now scalable via the custom-built app.
Wellness unLAOISed was an extensive but very rewarding programme and participants have shared numerous written, audio, and video testimonials to attest to its success.
Future programmes are dependent on funding. If you would like to be notified about future programmes please sign up to our newsletter by entering your email at the bottom of this page.
For more information, please contact Dr Diane Cooper (Founder & CEO of EduFIT & Clinical Exercise Physiologist) at info@edufit.ie or call 087 238 8748.
