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ASPIRE EU funding

Value of EU Grant - €10 million

Name of funding programme - Interreg France (Channel) England ASPIRE Programme

Start and end dates - September 2019 to February 2023

The ASPIRE (Adding to Social capital and individual Potential In disadvantaged REgions) programme involves 14 organisations from across southern England and northern France. This €10 million Interreg VA Channel project has been awarded more than €7 million by the European Regional Development Fund.

The project will provide a holistic approach to lowering obesity and unemployment rates in identified communities where these two issues are common and definitively linked. A recent Gallup poll shows that the longer a person is unemployed, the higher the rates of obesity, with rates reaching up to 32.7% after a year or more of unemployment. Nationally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United Kingdom among adults (16+), has risen from 52.9% in 1993, 61.3 % in 2009 to 63.3% in 2018.

ASPIRE will give overweight and unemployed people the tools they require to make healthier lifestyle choices and improve their wellbeing and employability.

A new model, co-created using partner expertise in both fields, will combine the necessary support to increase employability with access to local health food produce and consequent weight loss.

Find out more about the ASPIRE EU funding and read our latest press release (PDF, 137.5 KB).

Interreg France Channel Manche England ASPIRE European Regional Development Fund logo

Partners

  • Lead Partner - WP - Health and Europe Centre
  • Kent County Council
  • Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust
  • Wellbeing People
  • Mission Locale Picardie Maritime
  • Maison pour l’Enterprise, l’Emploi et la Formation Santerre Haute Somme
  • Bournemouth University
  • C3 Collaborating for Health
  • Betteshanger Country Park Ltd
  • Les Anges Gardins
  • Vivons en Forme (Association Fédérons les villes por la santé)
  • Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (Sustainable Food City Partnership)
  • Medway Community Healthcare CIC
  • Centre Social Audrey Bartier

Aims and objectives

ASPIRE is an innovative programme to support people who are unemployed to reach a healthy weight, and gain employment, in areas where levels of unemployment and obesity are abnormally high. Using partner expertise and combining employability skills and healthier lifestyle choices, ASPIRE will support people holistically to achieve their health and career goals.

Increase the quality and effectiveness of service delivery to the most socially and economically disadvantaged groups through social innovation.

Anticipated outcomes

  • the programme will be implemented via 7 implementation sites and innovative technology in order to enable participants to improve their relationship with food and provide them with the skills and support they need to gain access to the labour market.
  • a cross-border training programme for staff to enable them to deliver the patient support programme effectively
  • a programme that will provide patient benefit after the project ends.

Key benefits for Kent

  • ASPIRE will give obese, overweight and/or unemployed people the tools they need to make healthier lifestyle choices and improve their employability. Current health and employment services rarely work together to tackle the issues as one problem, despite the evidence that they are linked. The new collaboration opportunities will be of great value.
  • a new FCE model, co-created using partner expertise in both fields, will holistically combine the necessary support to increase employability with access to local healthy food produce and consequent weight loss.
  • opportunities for partners in Kent to benefit from shared learning from European partners regarding the design and implementation of support programmes in the employability and obesity context.