The MOVE project: good practices in cross-cutting community initiatives to promote health-enhancing physical activity for socio-economically disadvantaged groups

Physical activity has proven itself to be one of the single most important determinants for a healthy life. Leading authorities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), have extensively documented the positive effects of physical activity on health and quality of life. However, it has been equally well documented that inequalities related to access to physical activities are also strongly linked to socioeconomic factors such as income, education, employment and ethnicity. People who are poorer, less educated, unemployed or belonging to specific ethnic groups tend to engage less in physical activity with negative effects for their life. The MOVE project, funded by the European Commission under the Health Programme 2008-2013 «Together for Health», aimed at identifying, qualifying and implementing good practices in cross-cutting community initiatives to promote health-enhancing physical activity for socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Particularly, the MOVE project aimed at collecting and qualifying good practices by focussing on experiences that have been successful in using the movement as a means for targeting groups – such as youth, ethnic minorities, girls and women, seniors - living in disadvantaged urban or rural areas and addressing socioeconomic challenges. Through a worldwide data collection launched via several routes and mechanisms, 154 good practices implemented by 132 organisations and representing 35 countries worldwide were collected and analysed against a set of predefined criteria: Evidence of success in connection with defined goals and the target group; sustainability, both in terms of durability of programme results and efficient use of resources at disposal; Structural quality (organising institution, project leadership, project team, distribution of responsibilities, networking, etc.); Process quality (documentations, monitoring, conflict management, etc.); Outcome quality (impact for the target group, cost efficiency, etc.) Based on the data collected, key determinants for organisational readiness directly influencing the quality and the efficacy of a project targeting socially disadvantage groups will be presented and discussed.