With the conclusion of RED January 2023, we want to share London Sport’s experience and the effect it has had on our workplace wellbeing.
About RED January
The RED January campaign was founded in 2016 by Hannah Beecham MBE after regular physical activity helped her mum fight depression and improved her mental wellbeing. It was created as a fresh way to start a new year and find the motivation to be physically active throughout winter, a period that people cite as mentally challenging.
The fundraising element of Red January has raised more than 3 million pounds to help “Sport in Mind” – a charity that improves peoples’ mental wellbeing through physical activity. RED January Research 2020 shows that RED January has helped 32% of people become fairly active after previously being inactive. The importance of this is evident after the Active Lives Survey 20/22 showed that 52.8% of children and young people and 38.7% of adults are not meeting recommended daily activity levels. RED January has also improved more than 50% of participants’ mental health by reducing depressive symptoms and stress.
London Sport’s Journey
There are clear benefits to participating in the Red January campaign that align with our own mission at London Sport, which is why we are taking part to improve our workplace wellbeing. We collectively pledged to do 157 hours of physical activity to represent 157,000 km2 of London. Today, with the dedication of our team, we more than doubled our set target!
Our mission is to help all Londoners to live longer, healthier, and happier lives through being active. This month we had the opportunity to practise what we preach – from our CEO Emily Robinson to our interns, everyone felt inspired to be active at work.
Our team also had different motivational reasons to take part in the campaign. For some it is to get in touch with the mental benefits of being active, for others it was a great start to train for upcoming marathons.
Some of the team after a 5km RED January Run
Throughout the month our employees not only participated in yoga, HIIT classes and running, but were leading them as well. It truly allowed our team to explore others’ sports passions and be a part of them for a month.
This is what one of the team members had to say:
“I have loved taking part in RED January! For me like so many others, the winter can be a really challenging time mentally and whilst I know how much being active can help with that, I struggle to motivate myself to actually get out there and do it! Having a group of people motivating each other at work due to RED January has really helped me overcome that barrier, and it has done wonders for my mental and physical health… to the point that I have signed up to do a half marathon in May!”
– Rachel, Communications Officer
January was a transformational month for London Sport and proved that being physically active in the work environment is beneficial for our wellbeing. Being a part of something bigger allowed us to connect with and encourage each other to keep going. Starting the year with the RED January campaign inspired our team members to continue their physical activity journey and engage in weekly HIIT sessions and runs led by our own employees. This month inspired us to create a habit of an active workplace and share the benefits of physical activity, as a team, starting with social run Thursdays!
