HERO is a wide-reaching health education programme developed by GENIE (Genetics Education Networking for Innovation and Excellence) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Leicester in collaboration with and jointly funded by NIHR CLAHRC-LNR.

Based on GENIE’s outreach experience and in line with CLAHRC’s remit to improve health and evaluate the best practical approaches to deliver lifestyle outreach messages, HERO aims to:

• Educate and inspire people to take responsibility for their own health, diet and well-being.
• Promote awareness of the links between an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle and serious health problems in later life.

Through fun and interactive workshops and public events HERO provides people with the insight to prevent and reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. HERO is committed to providing adults, families, students and school-children with a basis to appreciate the long-term benefits of regular exercise, a healthy diet and a stress-free lifestyle.

Photo courtesy of Carl Warner

Recent HERO activities:
In 2010 and 2011 HERO is working with three schools in Leicestershire over two academic years to investigate the best way of getting healthy living messages across to over 400 young teenagers. In doing this HERO aims to determine the approach that best increases pupil’s knowledge and understanding of how diet and exercise can affect long-term health, and to explore their perceptions, attitudes and understanding of diet and disease. Using experience gained through schools outreach events HERO has designed interactive activities for pupils that are linked to the school curriculum and look at pupils’ own eating and activity habits. The have been delivered by GENIE outreach experts and staff and students from the University at university-based workshops and in the classroom setting.  School teachers were also provided with subject-specific knowledge and resources to help them plan their own healthy living lessons. These different educational approaches are being evaluated by pupil assessment to determine changes in knowledge, understanding and attitude. The effectiveness and ease of delivery of these approaches is also being investigated with the aim of producing resources for wider use.

An interim report of the project will be produced in summer 2011.

Other HERO activities include:

• Working with teachers and schools to develop interactive, curriculum-embedded activities. ‘HERO Days’ provide school children and their teachers with a variety of hands-on activities relating to health, diet and exercise.

• Working with the general public and local communities to raise awareness of health issues relating to people of different ages and social backgrounds living in Leicestershire, such as the relevance of food labelling and marketing in their everyday lives, and drugs and alcohol education for students with learning disabilities.
• Working with University student and staff to raise awareness of health-related issues through the Student Support and Development Service, Students’ Union and open days, such as involvement in the University’s Healthy Living Week.
• Working with the charity Hope Against Cancer on an AstraZeneca-funded project to raise awareness of the links between diet, exercise, genetic inheritance and certain forms of cancer through interactive Cancer Awareness Evenings for the public and further education students. HERO has also held a public awareness lecture on current issues in dementia, organised in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.
• Working with patient groups.
  In 2010 HERO collaborated with Macmillian Cancer and the Clinical Genetics department at the Leicester Royal Infirmary to run two MY DIET events (Macmillan working with Your Dietary needs to Improve Education on prevention of Tumours). These events were educational opportunities for patients seen in clinical cancer genetics appointments to attend interactive educational workshop with their families to learn about the links between diet, exercise and cancer susceptibility.

Please visit the GENIE website for more information

Presentations:
The work of the HERO schools project was presented at the inaugural International Conference on Health, Wellness and Society at the University of California Berkeley, from 20th-22nd January 2011. The Conference addressed a range of important issues and themes relating to Health, Wellness and Society and was attended by a diverse and international audience of scholarly researchers and practice-based participants. A particular highlight of the conference was the emphasis on promoting health and wellness through community-participative interventions and the common foundation position that health and wellness should be a socially accessible, culturally sensitive public and professional awareness of risks and preventative measures of the most pressing global health issues of today and tomorrow.