Did you become more physically active during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020?

Are you making an effort to stay active in the 2021 lockdown?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Active in Lockdown is a new project by the University of Bristol and Knowle West Media Centre that will explore our experiences of staying active during the COVID-19 pandemic, preserving them for people to look back on in the future.

We’re keen to hear and record your stories of cycling, running, walking or any form of human-powered mobility during lockdown! We’d love to hear a variety of stories and experiences from people who became more active during the first period of lockdown as well as people who are now trying to remain active in the dark winter months of the pandemic.

What’s the project about?

The project aims to document the huge surge in active leisure in Bristol and the surrounding area during England’s first lockdown (March – July 2020).

It will also record the stories of five Bristol residents who have discovered or returned to active leisure as they try to maintain their activity levels over the winter (January-March 2021).

To read more about the wider project, visit the University of Bristol website here.

Why are we doing this? 

We want to create a freely available digital archive of stories and experiences so that we can learn some immediate lessons from them and also have a historical record of how the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed people’s lives and relationship to the world around them.

Your stories would also be used to evaluate the physical and emotional benefits of active leisure and the difficulties of maintaining levels of activity when lockdown ended. This would then help us create a series of policy recommendations for Bristol City Council, the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), regional public health organisations, and other bodies interested in improving quality of life in the area.

What will I get out of it? 

As well as being part of a historical record of people’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll be able to meet other people, develop your digital storytelling skills and document your lockdown activity through a series of interactive online film-making workshops.

We’ll support you to use your mobile phone and free (‘open source’) editing software to make your films, which will be shown in an online celebration screening at the end of the project! These workshops will take place from February 2021 – through to April 2021. 

Do you have questions?  Want to get involved? Contact Josephine Gyasi at KWMC via josephine@kwmc.org.uk