Active Living for All: An Evaluation‪.‬

Abstract Barrow's Active Living For All (ALFA) project was instigated in January 2002 with the aim of promoting active living and therefore improving health amongst three distinct groups of the population of Barrow Borough: older adults, young women and girls, and young men and boys. The authors were commissioned to undertake a retrospective evaluation of the project covering July 2002 to November 2004. Because of the retrospective nature of the task, the evaluation team had to rely on the monitoring data as presented by the programme plus an examination of documentary sources and (semi-structured) interviews with service users, managers and providers. A study of the bid documents and previous research into local need was also carried out. Further to this, a mapping exercise took place to note the use of ALFA by other providers across the area. This article reports on two particular aspects of the evaluation of ALFA: the background and development of the programme and the multi-agency partnership relationships that were established. The authors conclude that by researching and consulting, ALFA could offer a range of activities and sports that fulfil the identified needs of local people and thus the project engaged a considerable number of people within their target groups.