Made Open and Warrington Voluntary Action (WVA) are working with Active Cheshire on a "Learning Lab" project, funded by Sports England, to help more people get physically active by making it much easier to find what’s available locally.
The work is being integrated into the Living Well Warrington platform, which brings together local health, wellbeing and community services.
Physical inactivity is still one of the biggest drivers of poor health, but it often doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This Learning Lab is based on the idea that if people can more easily see what’s available near them, they are more likely to take part - and that this, in turn, can make a real difference to health and wellbeing.
Making it easier to find local activities
A big part of the project is creating a dedicated space inside Living Well Warrington where people can see local physical activity options in one place. This includes sports clubs, fitness sessions, walking groups, community activities and more.
The aim is to reduce the time and effort it takes for people to find something that suits them (regardless of their interests, ability level, location or how active they already are) and make it easier for anyone to take that first step into being more active.
This matters because a significant number of people do very little physical activity and many more are not active enough to experience the health benefits.
"25.1% of people (11.8m) do less than an average of 30 mins activity per week" Source: Active Lives Adults Survey, 2023/24.
Small increases in activity can have a meaningful impact on physical health, mental wellbeing and social connection, but only if people can easily find and access the right opportunities for them.
Using AI to find hidden activity
One of the most interesting parts of the project is how we are exploring the use of AI to enhance how existing activity is surfaced and shared.
Rather than replacing the current approach of organisations manually adding and managing their own listings (which remains a key part of how platforms like Living Well Warrington work) we are testing how AI can add extra value by helping to identify and bring together information that is already publicly available online. This includes sources such as club websites, social media pages and community posts, helping to surface activity that might otherwise be harder to find and connect into a single, accessible view.
Early results show promising signs. Our first AI scrape identified 248 listings not currently added to Living Well Warrington, showing the scale of activity already available across the borough and the opportunity to make it easier for people to discover and access.
Built with local organisations and local insight
Alongside the digital delivery aspect, the project is being supported by WVA and developed with local partners, shaped by what residents and organisations say they need.
While AI tools can help surface a much wider range of activity, they don’t automatically guarantee accuracy, consistency or quality. This creates important questions around trust, safeguarding and ethics - particularly when information is being gathered from across the open web.
Because of this, a key part of the work is building a clear quality and verification layer, developed with local partners, to ensure information is accurate, safe and reliable.
This means people can trust what they see, while still benefiting from the additional reach that AI provides. It ensures the system supports, rather than replaces, the role of local organisations.
Why this project matters
This work sits within a wider effort to support better health through prevention and aligns with Sport England’s conditions for change, focusing on making it easier for people to be active by improving access, visibility and connection to local opportunities.
If people can more easily find what’s available near them, they are more likely to move more, feel better and stay healthier for longer.
Looking ahead
Early work is already showing that it’s possible to bring together scattered information about local activity and make it easier to use in one place.
Over the coming months, the focus will be on refining this approach and turning it into something that can support the wider local system - strengthening how information is shared, accessed and maintained across partners.
While the immediate focus is Warrington, the longer-term ambition is to develop an approach that could be adapted and used in other places facing the same challenge.
At its core, the project remains simple: make it easier for people to find ways to be active and help local organisations reach the people who need them most.