The Women's Active Living Kits (WALK) Community Grant Scheme was a key component of a federally funded Australian initiative aimed at increasing local capacity to promote and engage priority women's groups in health-related physical activity. Under the program, community groups and organizations were provided with the opportunity to apply and receive small grants to support the development of women's walking groups with the aim of increasing physical activity participation levels in women, supporting innovative community ideas for increasing women's physical activity by improving social structures and environments, or both. This article describes the development and administration of the WALK Community Grant Scheme, outlines challenges and barriers encountered throughout the grant program process, and provides practical insights for replicating this initiative.

Background:The Women’s Active Living Kits (WALK) Pilot Program was an Australian federal government initiative designed to identify an effective model for extending physical activity participation in government identified priority women’s groups. The purpose of this study is to address the barriers and challenges to physical activity participation in selected priority women’s groups and present possible strategies to assist with engaging these groups in physical activity.Methods:Ten focus group evaluation sessions were undertaken with priority women’s groups who took part in the WALK program. Participants were encouraged to share their opinions, perceptions and beliefs regarding their physical activity behaviors, in a semistructured, open table discussion.Results:Participants reported a number of psychological and cognitive, sociocultural, and environmental factors which restricted their participation in physical activity. Participants also highlighted strategies they felt would enable physical activity participation.Conclusions:These findings are valuable and should be used as a platform to inform the design and implementation of future physical activity interventions for priority women’s groups.

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