Intersectional problems, intersectional solutions: A whole-of-community approach to co-produce local park-based physical activity interventions for ethnically diverse adolescent girls in a socio-economically deprived city in the United Kingdom

• Local park-based physical activity (PA) interventions for teenage girls: • Have women PA leaders & teenage girls as Park Ambassadors to – • co-design walking pathway & group walking sessions (combined with intensive PA); • co-deliver park safety training & social media campaign for adolescents. • Informed by intersectional rights to the city & gender-transformative approaches. Parks are important spaces to engage with physical activity (PA) for adolescents, but challenges remain in transforming them into inclusive spaces for adolescent girls. Guided by intersectionality as a critical inquiry and praxis, with gendered understanding of Lefebvre’s notion of ‘the right to the city’, this paper presents a whole-of-community approach to co-produce local park-based PA interventions for ethnically diverse adolescent girls in socio-economically deprived urban areas in Bradford, United Kingdom (UK). We facilitated eight workshops, each was comprised of photo-elicitation discussion and feeding back research findings activities, with 37 adolescent girls, boys, and parents across two local parks – one was in a predominantly White British neighbourhood, and the other British Pakistani which was also co-developed with local adolescent girls. Three themes from the workshops are: 1) the limitations of focusing on park quality; 2) social support to improve adolescent girls’ confidence as active citizens, and; 3) multi-sited educational interventions to transform restrictive gender norms. Building on these themes, intervention ideas related to walking, youth workers, and Park Ambassadors are assembled into complex interventions called Girls and Their Parks (S-PARKS) . We also call for greater use of a whole-of-community approach to intersectionality for co-producing PA interventions for adolescent girls.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Wellbeing Space and Society
Published
2026-02-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2026.100373
Primary Topic
Physical Education and Pedagogy
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Intersectional problems, intersectional solutions: A whole-of-community approach to co-produce local park-based physical activity interventions for ethnically diverse adolescent girls in a socio-economically deprived city in the United Kingdom

Sally Barber, Jamie Crowther, Amanda Seims, Alice Porter et al.
Wellbeing Space and Society
Physical Education and Pedagogy
article

Intersectional problems, intersectional solutions: A whole-of-community approach to co-produce local park-based physical activity interventions for ethnically diverse adolescent girls in a socio-economically deprived city in the United Kingdom

Sally Barber, Jamie Crowther, Amanda Seims, Alice Porter, Nathan P. Dawkins, Steven Heywood, Satrio Nindyo Istiko, Eve Bednall, Laura Sheard
article en

Abstract

• Local park-based physical activity (PA) interventions for teenage girls: • Have women PA leaders & teenage girls as Park Ambassadors to – • co-design walking pathway & group walking sessions (combined with intensive PA); • co-deliver park safety training & social media campaign for adolescents. • Informed by intersectional rights to the city & gender-transformative approaches. Parks are important spaces to engage with physical activity (PA) for adolescents, but challenges remain in transforming them into inclusive spaces for adolescent girls. Guided by intersectionality as a critical inquiry and praxis, with gendered understanding of Lefebvre’s notion of ‘the right to the city’, this paper presents a whole-of-community approach to co-produce local park-based PA interventions for ethnically diverse adolescent girls in socio-economically deprived urban areas in Bradford, United Kingdom (UK). We facilitated eight workshops, each was comprised of photo-elicitation discussion and feeding back research findings activities, with 37 adolescent girls, boys, and parents across two local parks – one was in a predominantly White British neighbourhood, and the other British Pakistani which was also co-developed with local adolescent girls. Three themes from the workshops are: 1) the limitations of focusing on park quality; 2) social support to improve adolescent girls’ confidence as active citizens, and; 3) multi-sited educational interventions to transform restrictive gender norms. Building on these themes, intervention ideas related to walking, youth workers, and Park Ambassadors are assembled into complex interventions called Girls and Their Parks (S-PARKS) . We also call for greater use of a whole-of-community approach to intersectionality for co-producing PA interventions for adolescent girls.

Wellbeing Space and SocietyVol. 10
Bradford Royal Infirmary (GB), University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (GB), West Yorkshire Police (GB), University of Manchester (GB), University of Bristol (GB), Lancaster University (GB), Manchester University (US)
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 45%
Physical Education and Pedagogy
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.