Intro
Western Australians are blessed with amazing opportunities to lead an active lifestyle.
Our natural environment invites us to experience seemingly endless golden beaches, age-old forests, twisting inland waterways and the red dirt of the outback. Well-planned and designed environments such as pedestrian and cycle paths, sport and recreation facilities, parks and town centres enable us to be more physically active in our local communities.
This gives us an exciting opportunity in Active Living for All 2017–19. This framework looks at existing government strategies and delivers a robust framework which allows an integrated and coordinated response to encourage Western Australians to increase their daily physical activity.
Active Living is a lifestyle choice where people incorporate physical activity into their daily routines and reduce sedentary behaviour, aiming for at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily for adults and 60 minutes for children.
We all know that regular physical activity has many health benefits and improves our mental and emotional wellbeing. It can also help prevent heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes and some cancers.
Participation in sport and active recreation encourages healthy and active lifestyles and has the power to bring people together, strengthening community bonds and connection.
Designing safe, liveable and mixed-use neighbourhoods that are walkable and accessible naturally encourages people to be active. In such environments walking, cycling and public transport becomes second nature and effortless.
The Western Australian Health and Physical Education curriculum supports the Active Living vision by teaching public school students to take responsibility for their own health, physical activity levels, safety and wellbeing.
The Active Living agenda aims to improve the overall health and quality of life of individuals and communities in Western Australia and delivers positive economic, environmental, health and social outcomes.
The State Government acknowledges the important role of local governments, not-for-profit organisations and other stakeholders towards the Active Living agenda.
I look forward to seeing Western Australians being more active more often.
HON Mark McGOWAN BA LLB MLAPremier
Active Living for All 2017-19 represents the strategic direction for increasing and improving opportunities for physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour in Western Australia.
This document presents the integrated planning and delivery model that acknowledges and is responsive to existing strategies and plans across a broad range of sectors.
Highlighted within is evidence and trends on physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Western Australia.
This document and its summary lift out provides the objectives, strategies and actions for multiple sectors and settings to achieve the common outcome of ensuring physical activity opportunities exist for all Western Australians.
The development of Active Living for All 2017-19 was led by the Department of Sport and Recreation in collaboration with the Department of Health, Department of Transport, Department of Education and Department of Planning.
ISBN: 978-1-921648-54-0