Black Country in Motion Launched at Priory Park

The Black Country BeActive Partnership launched the Black Country in Motion programme on Friday 11 July.  The launch was held at Priory Park in Dudley, and is one of 8 launches taking place across the Black Country during the summer.

Black Country in Motion is part funded by Sport England, and the project takes a geographically focused approach to getting inactive people into sport.  It is supported by a PhD research study led by the University of Wolverhampton.  The project also considers the sustainability of activities and will be training up local people with sports qualifications to enable then to continue delivering activities in the local community for years to come.

The geographically focused areas are called Black Country in Motion Zones, there are 8 of them and Castle and Priory in Dudley is just one.

During the launch, their were activities on offer for the community including tennis, a penalty shootout against Wolfie, multi sports activities, face painting and more.  The local boxing club also came along to join in the fun.  The project was formally launched by Ian Austin MP who cut the ribbon to signal the start of a run around the park.  The run was led by one of our current Black Country in Motion volunteers and some of our Priory Park weekly runners also took part.

Ian Austin, MP, Member of Parliament for Dudley North said, ""I am really happy to be part of what Black County in Motion is doing to help local people. It’s great for the health and wellbeing of Dudley residents and I hope that people take the opportunity to try something new and improve their fitness.”

There were also opportunities for community members to talk to the team about volunteering opportunities, and people interested in getting active were able to sign up to some of the activities on offer.

One of our current Black Country in Motion participants has commented, "I’m so glad that I saw the advert in the local paper it really has changed my whole outlook towards running, I am now taking part in a weekly parkrun event as part of my 3 runs a week… something I never even imagined I would be doing for fun”.

Simon Hall, Director of the Black Country BeActive Partnership said, "today has been a fantastic opportunity for people that live around Priory Park to come along and see what the Black Country in Motion programme is all about.  I am hoping that we have signed up some new participants for our activities and recruited some new volunteers onto our successful volunteer programme.  I would like to thank Ian Austin MP, Sport England and all of our special guests for joining us today and seeing what the Black Country has to offer”.

For further details on the programme, click here.

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