This is is an information portal (German and English language) for municipalities that aim to promote physical activity in older people.
Everyone wants to stay active and healthy and therefore remain independent in old age. It is widely known that physical activity can make a contribution, but with increasing age, people tend to decrease their physical activity.
Schritt halten – aktiv älter werden in Reutlingen was a German project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In the Southern German municipality of Reutlingen a prevention program for people aged 65 years and older was developed and implemented. Over the period 2010-2013 we used a participatory community planning process to strengthen existing structures and ways of promoting safe physical activity among older people. New networks and partnerships created synergetic effects making stakeholders and the public aware of issues like “exercising in older age” and “risk of falling”. To achieve successful prevention, public awareness is a necessary requirement.
By making the documentation of this project available, we aim to support local authorities and organisations involved in health promotion for older people by focusing on exercising and a secure environment that stimulates and inspires physical activity.
Our website (www.schritthalten.info) provides, free of charge, a “toolkit” where you will find a variety of measures and strategies for action (e.g. Training measures for promotion of physical activity and prevention of falls, how to organise a senior sports day, and tips on media and public relations). The details of the strategies and the cost are described and experiences are reported in a critical way.
No municipality is the same as another, thus the outcome of a measure can be highly influenced by the local context. This being said, further examples are presented, based on those actually implemented during the project “Schritt halten”. You can benefit from our experiences in the project Schritt halten and you can hit the road running to “put your municipality in motion”.
