Councillor Jasbir Jaspal is encouraging residents aged 18 and over to sign up to the free pilot programme, which will see people given rewards such as money off their shopping in return for making small lifestyle changes such as eating more healthily or moving more.
The city has been selected to exclusively pilot the Better Health: Rewards scheme, designed to test whether offering rewards and incentives can help adults to eat better and increase their physical activity levels.
To get started, people aged 18 and over simply need to download the free Better Health: Rewards app, available from the AppStore or Google Play, which they will then sync to their fitness tracker. If they haven't got a tracker, they can claim one for free which will be delivered to their door.
The app will generate personalised health goals for every participant – such as increasing their step count or eating more fruit and vegetables, with people able to earn points for completing these challenges which they can swap for rewards to spend with major retailers like Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Argos or M&S, for passes to gyms and leisure centres across Wolverhampton including the council's WV Active leisure centres, or for money off fantastic family days out.
Latest figures show well over 10,000 people have already downloaded the app and signed up, with many already earning rewards. Thousands of free fitness trackers have also been sent out to participants.
Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: "Better Health: Rewards is a great way to help people achieve their health goals by having personalised health goals set just for them.
"It will encourage you to make small manageable changes to help you eat healthier, and help to motivate you to move more. It's also a fantastic activity to do with family and friends, as you can encourage one another and see how you are doing compared to others.
"Thousands of people having already signed up and, if you are yet to do so and you are aged 18 or over and live in Wolverhampton, you still have time to register.
Remember, it’s free, and you can earn at least £40 worth of rewards. You'll even be given a free fitness tracker if you need one.
"All you need to do is download the Better Health: Rewards app from your app store, so please sign up today!"
For more information, please visit Better Health: Rewards. Registrations close at the end of March.
