Welcome to the official Step Out Sheffield website
Forthcoming cancellations
Thursday 21st November - the 10am walk at Grenoside and the 2pm walk from Forge Dam cafe have both been cancelled.
Week beginning 18th November 2024 - Freezing overnight temperatures have resulted in very slippery surfaces in some places. If your leaders are at all worried about the safety of their walkers they will cancel the walk. Next week temperatures will be back to normal for the time of year and we expect all walks to be operating as normal.
We reserve the right to cancel walks in bad weather and or if conditions underfoot are made dangerous by snow and ice. In particular we do not walk on days when the Met office have issued a weather warning (red or amber) in our area. If you are keen to walk but are unsure if your walk will go ahead because of very hot or bad weather, or because of poor ground conditions please phone our helpline 07505639524 to check.
On 12th August 2024 Step Out Sheffield celebrated the fact that the first health walk started in Parson Cross Park in April 1999 and health walks or accessible walks as they are now known continue to this day! The 25th Anniversary event took the form of a walk from Endcliffe Park cafe to the Botanical Gardens for afternoon tea in the Dorothy Fox Centre. 50 Volunteer walk leaders and various guests took part. Guests included the Lord Mayor (Cllr Jayne Dunn), Ed Clancey OBE, Kate Pearce and Barbara Davis who both started walking with us in 2004 and the two ladies who established thevery first walk Avril Wragg and Tina Moores.
The Lord Mayor acknowledged the importance of walking and socialising for wellbeing and health and reminded us how lucky we are in Sheffield to have such lovely parks and green spaces to walk in. Ed Clancy also said how good walking in particular was for health and how many health benefits could be had for free because no one had to buy special equipment to join and anyone can do it regardless of age or ability. Then he thanked the volunteers for their dedication and support (without our dedicated team of fabulous volunteers, there wouldn't be any walks!) before presenting Avril and Tina with commemorative awards for their pioneering efforts.
Bernadette, one of the volunteers had made the most incredible cake to celebrate 25 years of Health Walks in Sheffield. It seemed a shame to have to cut it but when we did - it tasted as good as it looked! Thank you Bernie and thank you to everyone who helped make our celebration event an extra special one.
Pictured below are some of the Totley walkers beside their local Platinum Jubilee post box on their walk on 1st June 2022, some of the Hillsborough Park walkers chatting up Ozzie, the Sheffield Wednesday mascot, during their walk in the park on 4th August 2022, some of the Stannington walkers admiring their local letter box with its exercise theme on Tuesday 16th August and finally a photo of Wire Mill Dam taken by one of the walkers on the Forge Dam walk on Thursday 3rd November. Our walks are short, social walks at a pace to suit you. What's more they are free! We find some of the loveliest parts of the city to walk in and have lots of fun on the way. Why not give us a try?
We walk every week except for Christmas week and our lovely trained volunteers will be there to greet you with a smile even on the dullest of days.
Click on the link below to watch a short promotional youtube video to give you a flavour of our walks. This video was compiled by the very talented Gwen Craddock, a 5th Year medical school student who did her community placement with us in September and October 2023
Ramblers Wellbeing Walks - Step out Sheffield is a volunteer-run organisation providing a choice of walks at 24 different locations across the city each week, primarily using parks and greenspaces. All our walks are completely free, fun and sociable - three great reasons to get involved. We walk every week except Christmas week (including school holidays). All our walks are led by trained Volunteer Walk Leaders and without their commitment we wouldn't be able to provide them. RWW - Step out Sheffield is the largest Ramblers Wellbeing Walks scheme in the country that is managed and delivered entirely by volunteers - and we are very proud of this.
Our aims:
- To improve the health of Sheffield Residents
- To get you out of the house and into your local greenspaces
- To encourage you to meet new people and catch up with old friends
- To show you the wonderful scenery Sheffield has to offer
Why walking is good for your health
- Walking gets your heart and lungs working well together
- Walking lowers your blood pressure and helps keep your weight down
- Walking outside in the fresh air is great for your mood
- And of course walking is completely FREE!
Inclusivity
We're proud that our walks cater for everyone. Many walks are wheels-friendly and most groups offer walks at different paces to make sure that everyone travels at a speed that is comfortable for them whatever their age or level of fitness. Guide and assistance dogs are welcome on all of our walks. Well behaved dogs are also welcome on some of our walks but must remain on a short leash at all times to minimise the risk of tripping up other walkers. Before bringing your dog to one of our walks please come without it initially and ask the leaders what the policy on that particular walk is.
If you would like to get in touch with us please phone the Step Out Sheffield helpline on 075 0563 9524 or email steppingoutinsheffield@gmail.com.
Come along and join the fun!
We're award winning!
Scheme coordinator, Dr. Sue Lee, was presented with Step Out Sheffield's award by the Ramblers Chairman, Des Garrahan. We're very proud
of this achievement, all the more because we won it only 12 months after we became volunteer led.
Funding
In April 2016 Sheffield City Council was no longer able to fund the employee whose job it was to co-ordinate the 140+ volunteers who led our walks, and it looked as if Sheffield's 17- year old health walk scheme would fold. But the volunteers recognised the value of these walks and had other ideas. A small group of volunteers came together to help put systems in place to ensure that our walks continued. To help us on our way, we gratefully received some very generous set-up grant awards from the following organisations:
- Sheffield Church Burgesses Trust
- Sheffield Town Trust
- The Harry Bottom Charitable Trust
- South Yorkshire Community Foundation
- The Freshgate Trust Foundation
We also secured funding from the Big Lottery Fund to help cover our operational costs in 2017. In 2020 we received a very generous award from the Co-op Community Fund. Step Out Sheffield has also benefited from local authority Ward Pot grants from some of the wards were health walks are held. More recently, we have received payment from the University of Sheffield Medical School for hosting third year students on their Social Accountability module. We are very grateful to the University for this because not only do the students provide revenue they also contribute positively to the organisation through the projects they complete for us. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srb-Yp4PgsY was produced by Gwen Craddock with the help of Zahra Ahmed, Harriet Beatie and Luke Jones in December 2021.
Please note: the website address in the video is now out of date. Can you please include the link to this website: https://www.stepoutsheffield.co.uk if you forward the link to friends or colleagues.
Website designed and populated by Sue Lee, the volunteer coordinator of RWW - Step Out Sheffield, with patient tuition and support from Forid Meah.