Good practice:

Fit For Five: Nordic walking, power walking and winter swimming

The “Fit For Five” is a social initiative (or an umbrella label) which operates within the Association „Wszystko gra” („Everything is fine” – EiF) framework, but has no separate legal form. The objective was to maintain physical activity of Association members when the pandemic started, in a brand-new reality of epidemic risk, personal liberties restrictions and lock down of sports facilities. The project turned previous ad hoc Nordic walking meetings into an organized routine with additional outdoor activities: power walk trainings and winter swimming. The project coordinators are responsible for:
- organizing & running trainings,
- providing professional knowledge, equipment, and insurance,
- promotion and external relations.
Several local stakeholders are involved in the project:
- Private sector sponsors, who provide necessary equipment and coherent outfits (clothes),
- Municipality of Pabianice, which facilitates organization of sports events,
- Public security and medical services,
- forest administration that manages green areas and allows events and assemblies within the GP,
- Other local NGOs – partners of sports events and providers of know-how and coaches
Also, the GP provides social benefits for wider community: it made sure that physical activity could be maintained throughout the pandemic, even in lockdown periods and winter months. Last but not least, no entry barriers can be identified: anyone can join at any moment and the community is open

- voluntary work
- Monthly contributions of Association members of 10 PLN (c.a. 2,5 EUR), which covers insurance, renewal of basic equipment (poles, medicine balls, gymnastic gums) and non-sportive meetings (like Christmas dinner),
- Sponsorship by sport-related companies

- growing number of people who take part in it, and – more widely – in a Fit For Five community (600 people in the project database, with around 50 who regularly take part in the trainings).
- sports achievements of power walking group members: 3 Association members gained medals at national power walking competitions in 2020 and 2021

- Members’ reluctancy to take part in group meetings, especially at the beginning the COVID crisis,
- lock down of not only sports facilities, but also (especially in Spring 2020) of parks and forests,
- finding proper sites for trainings in the autumn / winter period (safety issues)

- Organizational background: The EiF Association was the first animator of mass amateur sports events in the Pabianice county, set up within a larger wave of jogging / Nordic walking popularity growth. There was no alike organization before in the city. The Association handled few major sports events in the county (like an April annual half-marathon)
- Social contribution: the project is 100% based on voluntary work, with growing significance of private sponsorship and public non-financial support (honorary patronage, umbrella of public security services over events).
- Strong leadership: the GP was a private initiative of a group of people, members of the EiF Association. They formed a small, but dedicated task group. According to the founder (Miroslaw Frankiewicz, a Nordic walking instructor) an absolute key success factor for the GP was a personal involvement and passion of leading people and initiators.
- Mission: walking as a decicive factor of personal well-being