Mr KickStart's verdict!

After several seasons of football and work with men/dads around health and fatherhood issues , for the reasons listed in the previous post. the Gloucester KickStart project is currently not operational.

The blog/website has been left intact in the hope that this project may be revived at some future stage, and as a learning exercise on the ups and downs of running a men's health and fatherhood project for other professionals .

A toolkit in pdf format on how to set up your own version of KickStart was developed during the delivery of the project. With some modifications it's intended that the toolkit guidance will be posted on this blog at some stage - in the near future!

KickStart - Postponement Notice

You may have noticed the lack of information, results, and table updates since the last posting.

A combination of colleagues leaving, people having to give time to other work issues, and volunteer issues around recruitment and retention of teams ( some of which we think were phantom teams!) has meant that we have decided to bring the current KickStart programme to a halt - hopefully only a temporary one.

In the meantime, if you are a KickStart dad or player the GL1 sportshall is available for you to play 5-a-side football in up until the end of March on most Saturdays between 11.00 and 12.00. Please make use of this facility.

We are exploring how KickStart can be sustained and developed along with another project - the Men's Health Cafe - this will be dependent on available finance and an agreement with a community group to continue with this. If successful we'll make a posting on this blog and get back in touch with people.

KickStart has not only been a fun project - it has also enabled us to get across health information on a variety of subjects to a large group of men/fathers - information which will hopefully be retained as people go through life ( if one bloke remembers any of the information we've given out and visits their doctor, and receives treatment it will have been worth it; difficult to evaluate at this stage!)

Happy Christmas and New Year to all people who've been involved in KickStart!

Best wishes all

The KickStart Team

KickStart - False start? KickStart!

If you're wondering about results and the whereabouts of the KickStart league table, and the original fixture list in the previous post- then wonder no further!

As has been the experience of starting off a KickStart league, one team - Pro Team - had to drop out of the league at the last moment, which meant that the match scheduled orginally for 26th Sept had to be cancelled and the fixture list reconfigured to include a new team - Linden Lads - who were recruited thanks to Lloyd's efforts. The original fixtures list has been removed to avoid any confusion and a new one posted at the bottom of this post.

The 2009/2010 league thus kicked off on 10th October with a fiery ( behave yourselves guys!) see-saw match between Old Guns and Eurostars that eventually ended in a 21 -15 win for Old Guns. Both teams took away the Smoking Cessation activity to complete.

Remember - this activity carries a very large number of points - if one or more team members agree to give up smoking for at least a month and contact's the telephone number on the activity form and follows the instructions ( give your name and KickStart team). This is to ensure you are assisted in giving up smoking ( and so we can make sure you're not telling any fibs just to score extra points - no cheating!)

Eurostars have a chance to redeem themselves in the match tomorrow against against last season's Champions - All Whites . All Whites will be given the Smoking Cessation activity - Eurostars the Male Cancers activity.

Remember - the more activities you do, the more points you score for your team!

We will be adding further health and parenting activities to the website throughout the course of the season. You can download these and complete them as you wish.

Score: Old Guns 21 Eurostars 15

Week 1.



Revised KickStart fixtures - 2009 - 2010

10th Oct Eurostars v Old Guns

17th Oct All Whites v Eurostars

24th Oct Linden Lads v Prophecy Professionals

31 Oct Old Guns v Prophecy Professionals

21 Nov Linden Lads v Eurostars

28th Nov Prophecy Professionals v All Whites

5th Dec All Whites v Old Guns

12th Dec Eurostars v Prophecy Professionals

19th Dec Linden Lads v Prophecy Professionals

9th Jan Eurostars v Old Guns

16th Jan All Whites v Eurostars

23rd Jan Old Guns v Linden Lads

30th Jan Old Guns v Prophecy Professionals

13th Feb All Whites v Linden Lads

20th Feb Linden Lads v Eurostars

27th Feb Prophecy Professionals v All Whites

6th March All Whites v Old Guns

13th March Eurostars v Prophecy Professionals

20th March All Whites v Linden Lads

27th March Old Guns v Linden Lads

KickStart Fixtures 2009 - 2010

The KickStart men's health and parenting 5-a-side league is back. We welcome two new teams this season - Eurostars and Prophecy Professionals. First game up is on Saturday 26th of September - Old Guns v Pro Team. KickStart commences at 11.00 at GL1 on all Saturdays noted below. Remember the more health and parenting activities you do, the more points you'll score!

A registration reminder!

Just a reminder that registration for KickStart is at GL1 Sportshall at 11.00 on Saturday 19th September. You'll need 5 players minimum - 7 maximum ( for use as substitutes or in case players can't make it every game, injury etc).

The new league will run through until the end of March - or longer if we have more teams. Due to constraints on the use of the sportshall - i.e. we only have it for an hour on Saturday mornings, and can only fit so many fixtures in, we can only accept a maximum of 6 teams - who will play each other twice ( not once as per last season). First match takes place the following weekend on the 26th. All matches will begin at 11.00. Lloyd and Louise will be refereeing - and encouraging you to do the health and parenting activities. Remember - you'll score more points for the activities than for the football, and you can also score points for attending the dads and kids club at Bartongate Children's Centre on Saturday mornings - even if your team isn't playing.

See you all on the 19th!

The KickStart Team

Think Fathers...KickStart

The Think Fathers Campaign campaign is aimed at making the world a more father friendly place. The campaign is aimed at encouraging public, health and family services to be more ‘dad-friendly’ and inclusive of fathers. What a good idea! For further information take a look at www.think-fathers.org

And whilst we're at it - KickStart will be kicking off again on Saturday 19th September at GL1. Six potential teams have been identified as wanting to participate. If you're interested please contact the KickStart email address at kickstart@topmail.co.uk. Thanks!

Kick off...September

For people wondering what happened to the good intention of a KickStart summer league, a volunteer issue has prevented this running... however, the intention is to kick off again in September. We'll keep people posted and will be in touch just as soon as details are finalised.