Our Beginning

The 10,000 Steps program started as a whole-of-community project in 2001 titled “10,000 Steps Rockhampton”. The original project, funded by the Queensland Government, was a collaborative effort between the University of Queensland (UQ), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Sports Medicine Australia (SMA), the National Heart Foundation (NHF) and Central Queensland University (CQU). It aimed to establish a sustainable model to increase physical activity at a community level.

The initial 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Project was an exemplary model of an effective multi-strategy, multi-sector physical activity project. As a result of the success in Rockhampton, QLD Health has continued to fund the ongoing delivery of the program as a sustainable state wide and beyond initiative. 10,000 Steps is committed to ongoing research, development, distribution and support of new and existing support materials to 10,000 Steps Coordinators, all with web-based support.

Our Mission

Evidence shows that moving more each day can lead to significant health and well-being benefits. That's why the 10,000 Steps Program encourages Australians to move more throughout their daily lives by making active choices and tracking their activity. Our mission is to support individuals by enhancing their skills, confidence, and motivation to develop sustainable, active habits that improve their physical and mental wellbeing. #EveryStepCounts

Our Strategies

The 10,000 Steps Program exists to provide an innovative, fun and engaging behaviour change program that increases physical and mental health and wellbeing by supporting changes to physical activity levels across individual, social, organisation, community and policy systems.

The 10,000 Steps Program is unique because it is much more than a population-based program with a large reach. In line with the Social Ecological Model, the program also has a strong focus on communities and workplaces, and aims to achieve both environmental and policy change, as supportive environments and policies will make intervening at the individual and organisational level more effective. The evidence from the e- & mHealth field is clear: a website and app alone are not enough to achieve sustained and meaningful impact. To achieve outcomes across all these levels, the 10,000 Steps Program embraces a culture of collaboration with key stakeholders that are active across all levels. The success of the Program is in-part determined by the establishment of partnerships, that allow us to advocate more effectively.

The Program’s implementation strategies align with the Social Ecological Model:

Physical activity is a complex behaviour that can be influenced by many factors; this is why 10,000 Steps was developed as a multi-strategy program.