At OneLife Suffolk, we offer a combination of 10-week Family Programmes in the community and ‘After School Programmes’. We take an approach that focuses more on the importance of healthy lifestyles, instead of encouraging weight loss, where there are no unrealistic expectations.
LEVEL 1
This light touch approach allows any child, young person, or parent to engage with our service to learn about making healthier choices.
We have some recorded webinars which are available to watch here, but the OneLife Suffolk team can also deliver these topics during school time in assemblies, classroom workshops and parent workshops.
The Level 1 sessions cover a range of healthy lifestyle topics such as food, exercise, sleep and wellbeing.
- Food labelling
- Physical activity
- Sugary drinks
- Eat Well guide and portion sizes
- Sleep and wellbeing
- Cookery videos
LEVEL 2
Our club offers 12 months’ worth of support for children and young people from the age of 5 to 18 years, alongside their families, who would like to achieve a healthier lifestyle. The initial phase of the programme runs for 10 weeks, inviting the whole family to attend the weekly 90-minute sessions to learn together about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle whilst getting free physical activity for those who attend.
What to expect:
Each week, families start the first 45 minutes of the club together to enjoy a fun, interactive session discussing a healthy lifestyle topic with the OneLife Suffolk team. Following this, the children and young people will go to their 30 to 45 minute activity session where they will be able to play team games, complete activity challenges and learn new skills.
During that time, parents and guardians will remain with their OneLife Practitioner to discuss the weekly topic in more detail and to explore what further support is needed for the family to achieve their goals.
Weekly topics:
Week 1: Why make a change?
Week 2: Energy balance and healthy eating
Week 3: Portion control and snacks
Week 4: Approaching activity
Week 5: Halfway checkpoint and cookery session
Week 6: Making informed choices
Week 7: Food labelling
Week 8: What’s in my drink?
Week 9: Sleep and healthy breakfasts
Week 10: Next steps and moving on
The support doesn’t stop there! After the 10 weeks, the OneLife Suffolk team will remain in regular contact with families to track progress and be on hand to continue offering support over text, email and telephone for up to 12 months. After the 12 months, families will be invited to attend a final session to celebrate the progress made and what steps to take moving forward.
LEVEL 3
This is a specialist family service that consists of a team of experts including a dietitian, family therapist and healthy lifestyle practitioners. Our goal is to help families with moderate and sustainable weight loss over time by introducing step-by-step, small, healthy changes within their current lifestyles.
We provide 12 months of support:
- Intensive phase – 12 weekly sessions
- Maintenance phase – 4 fortnightly sessions and 7 monthly sessions
This is an evidence-based programme that covers a variety of healthy topics including diet, physical activity, wellbeing and sleep.
After School Programmes
There are several ways that the OneLife Suffolk Children’s team can support and work with schools across Suffolk to promote the importance of healthy living to pupils, staff, families and the wider community. This can be done through assemblies, class workshops, parent workshops and events.
We can also offer your school an exclusive OneLife Suffolk after school club for students, families and the community to attend. Your school can help our team in reaching those who need our support, to increase their awareness and understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Your school can support the service to:
- Dispel confusion and myths by discussing energy balance
- Prioritise the importance of eating a variety of foods and managing unhealthy food consumption
- Support parents/carers with the planning and preparing of a range of healthy meals
- Champion both the mental and physical benefits of being more active
- Encourage more time to be spent outdoors, family time, socialising with friends or joining a group
- Encourage active travel to school such as walking or cycling
- Understand the importance of making exercise a daily habit
- Highlight the importance of sleep and decreasing screen time activities
- Discuss unhealthy eating habits and the impacts on their overall health e.g. tooth decay
- Encourage simple self-care techniques
Once a person reaches the age of 16 years old, they have the choice to access one of our adult programmes.
Programme Options
- Zoom: We offer 1 hour Zoom sessions, plus 30-minute drop-in sessions for families and physical activity advice/guidance. These groups are divided into age groups so that you are supported by other families that are similar to your own.
- Face to Face: We offer 90-minute sessions which include spending family time discussing a new healthy lifestyle topic, parent time, and young people physical activity time. These run in a various localities across Suffolk.
