The summary report for Hearts and Minds 2011 – 14 is available here:

From 2011 to 2014 Bright Ideas Nottingham worked with national charity, The British Heart Foundation, and local partners, BMECC and mon0Lisa Productions to devise and deliver engaging programmes to Black and minority ethnic communities in Nottingham. All activities were designed to spread the word that heart disease is both treatable ad preventable.

The programmes comprised practical activities that would help individuals and groups to understand the small steps they can take to keep their hearts healthy. The work was boldly experimental – we wanted to learn what would work in engaging the target communities so that successful elements of the programme could be replicated in other parts of the UK. Over the three years we delivered three community conferences each attracting around 120 people and broadcast live on our local radio station which has a weekly listenership of over 60,000. Our programmes received a huge amount of coverage in local press as well as generating interest through social media channels. Successes were featured on East Midlands Today news reports, Sky News and the Voice and Gleaner, and Asian World newspapers and Pride Magazine. 20 people from Nottingham became national case-studies for the BHF and were featured online and in Heart Matters, the BHF magazine circulated to 1.2 million people nationally.

South Asian Programme

Activities included Drive Down and Measure Up where we engaged with taxi drivers ‘on the job’ to take their waist measurements and offer information, resources and health advice. We ran the Jawaid Khaliq challenge for three cohorts of taxi drivers (largely South Asian) who trained twice a week at a boxing gym, regularly having their waist measurements, blood pressure and weight taken by BHF nurse and health professionals from the African Caribbean Health Network. The Samia Khaliq Challenge which was a similar programme aimed at diverse women. An Asian, female aerobics instructor led BollyBeats classes for women of all ages who were physically inactive. A Mini-Mela and wellbeing day attracted 100 women, 50 of whom were trained in Emergency Life Support. 150 young people attended a shisha awareness session. 18 others were trained in the BHF’s Pass It On training for trainers programme. Twelve hundred recipe books plus other health resources were distributed in the South Asian community. Four fundraising activities and ten physical activity taster sessions were also delivered in the community.

African Caribbean Programme

The report on our African Caribbean programme from 2012-2013 is available below:

Seven volunteers, The Love Hearts, donated more than 1200 volunteering hours enabling us to deliver a range of activities. Over 200 people took part in Reggaerobics (aerobics to reggae) sessions – 45 of these went on to sign up t a 12-week physical activity programme and year-long free gym membership with the YMCA..  A 12-week walking programme leading to the development of a walking group Walk Good. 115 people attended Come Nyam with Me dining out events at Caribbean restaurants to promote healthier eating. Almost £3,000 was raised for the BHF through collecting 120 bags for the BHF’s Bagathon and a fundraising event Ramp Up the Red with Patty Dumplin – a character developed for the programme and who went on to tour African Caribbean venues throughout the UK. 15 local shops and businesses were engaged to act as distribution points for over 1,500 BHF resources and recipe books. Over 250 people were trained in emergency life support and over 50 community workers and volunteers were trained in Pass It On and the NHS had a further 21 staff trained.

Our celebration event in 2014 brought together all elements of the work to celebrate individual and collective successes. 

Watch the short film here:

And the longer version here:

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