XXX 

The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) Sport Unites programme is funding projects that are using sport to divert young people severely at risk of youth violence away from crime and provide meaningful education, training, and employment opportunities. strengthening our communities whilst improving the physical and mental health of all Londoners.

The Young Londoners Fund – Impact Partnerships and Steering Group programme includes a Sport and Serious Youth Violence Steering Group which seeks to identify issues, propose solutions, and influence policy-makers in the field. The group consists of 30 community organisations that Sport Unites are currently funding and 20 young people from these organisations. This is a strong example of co-creation in resolving current and sensitive issues. . Sport Unites are also working with Laureus Sport For Good in their Model City programme. They are working on ‘place-based’ projects in three London boroughs. These projects work intensively with communities using sport and community organising and asset-based community development techniques to address issues that communities themselves recognise as being of concern in their local area. Again, co-creation and democratic design are key here.

The GLA also fund grassroots organisations that use sport to reduce social isolation and improve community cohesion and social mixing. This is a more straightforward strand of work, but a good demonstration of the ways in which sport is used to deliver more complex social outcomes beyond participation and increasing activity levels.

Established in 2014, London Sport is a strategic body aiming to make London the most physically active city in the world. Supported by the Mayor of London, Sport England and the 33 local authorities in London, the agency’s work focuses on enabling more Londoners of all backgrounds to live and enjoy the benefits of active lives.

As well as the widely-understood health benefits of physical activity, London Sport also works to enable its wider social and societal impacts to be felt by Londoners in all parts of the capital. From projects that work through walking groups to support older adults to remain active to initiatives designed to support London’s growing social prescribing workforce, the organisation is committed to making physical activity and sport a key component of pan-London efforts to enhance the wellbeing of its residents.

To learn more about the work of London Sport watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiDPm_ei3uM https://www.connectsport.co.uk/news/satellite-club-leyton-girls-becoming-confident-citizens

Chance to Shine believes that cricket helps children build reliance, teamwork and respect. In 2018, 533,217 children experienced cricket coaching and competitions through Chance to Shine in 4,816 state schools – that’s one in every five primary, one in every three secondary and one in every five special schools in England and Wales. 84% of the school kids said that they had fun when playing cricket. The charity also runs Chance to Shine Street which is a counter for a lack of accessible clubs and green spaces in inner-city areas and aims to make cricket accessible to young people throughout the country. Street cricket offers a different way into the sport, with 87% of players not being part of a traditional cricket club when they joined the sessions. The programme is also developing leaders. 34% of coaches that lead established Chance to Shine Street projects were previously participants or volunteers. Having coaches that come from similar backgrounds is incredibly inspiring for the young cricketers and 85% of participants said “I look up to my coach”, whilst 91% said, “My coach inspires to do my best”.

The Black Prince Community Trust is a not-for-profit charity whose primary purpose is to manage and develop the Black Prince Community Hub Lambeth, South London. It stands as an inter-generational community hub that hosts sports sessions, mentoring and employment schemes for hundreds of local people. They host commercial partners, such as PowerLeague football which sit alongside bespoke community charity organisations such as Fight4Change, Street Games, Centrepoint, School of Hard Knocks, Vi-ability – Change Foundation, as well as the Ethelred Tenant Management Organisation, who provide a direct link to the local community. They focus on six key points: Social inclusion, Youth intervention, Health and wellbeing, Mental health, Employability and Female engagement.

The mission at Burgess Sport is to provide everyone living around Burgess Park located in a very diverse part of London with a unique opportunity to develop leadership, organisational and physical management skills in a fun and safe supportive learning environment in which participants can build a sense of community. The vision is to provide high quality sports and recreational activities for the local community at an affordable cost so that we can get more of our residents more active more often to improve their quality of life in terms of mental, physical and emotional development, as well as having a positive impact on the social and community development of the area.

Access Sport is a charity meeting the urgent need to improve children and young people’s health and wellbeing, working solely with young people in deprived communities and with a strong emphasis on young disabled people. Access believe that sport can be an incredibly powerful way to transform the lives not only of deprived young people but also their families and surrounding communities. And yet, despite this, the most deprived communities are very often those most lacking in accessible sporting facilities. Every child should have access to the developmental and health benefits of sport and every community should have a thriving, inclusive and sustainable offer. Access Sport develop community sports clubs, equipping local people to provide transformational development opportunities for children and young people, irrespective of their background or ability. They build, equip and up-skill local sports clubs and turn them into thriving local facilities, connected into other local partners such as schools, disabled people’s organisations and other local charities – all working together to deliver real change and opportunity for local young people. They train and support volunteer sports coaches and club leaders in a range of vital skills such as establishing new sessions to attract more deprived and disabled young people, building personal development pathways for participants towards education or employment and building the financial sustainability of the club so it can grow and serve more local young people for years to come. .

Good Gym are a community of runners that combine getting fit with doing good. They stop off on their runs to do physical tasks for community organisations and to support isolated older people with social visits and one-off tasks they can’t do on their own. It’s a great way to get fit, meet new people and do some good. As long as you’re up for getting sweaty, everyone’s welcome. Their work has three strands: To help out older people with one-off practical tasks that they are no longer able to do on their own. Missions give us a reason to run different routes and make a big impact on someone’s life too. To run regularly to see an isolated older person .Over a million older people in the UK are always or often lonely, some go for months without seeing friends or family. Visiting an older person as part of your weekly run can make a huge difference in their life To run in a group to work on community projects Every week the runners work out by helping local community projects and run back all within 90 minutes, that includes run to plant trees for the local park or run to shift earth for a community gardening project. You can either run with some of the GoodGym runners or walk and observe their great work

.

Greenhouse Sports is a London-based charity that uses sport to engage young people and improve their life chances. We partner with schools, placing full-time coaches into the school environment to deliver programmes before, during and after school programmes that empower and inspire young people growing up in disadvantage. Greenhouse Sport aims to:

• Inspire young people to fulfil their true potential
• Develop the Social, Thinking, Emotional and Physical (STEP) skills they will need to thrive in later life
• Break down the barriers that are often associated with growing up in disadvantaged or vulnerable communities

They have evolved into an outstanding, innovative and dynamic organisation recognised for its ever-increasing impact, engaging with almost 8000 young people each year 

Premiership Rugby is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of twelve clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system. The organisation aims to improve the lives and prospects of children and young people across England, using rugby to inspire the current generation to learn, be active and discover their inner champion to help them achieve their potential.They develop and deliver a number of community programmes through the skills and commitment of 150 people working in the community trusts at the Premiership Rugby Clubs.

They run various programmes such as the ‘Tackling Health’ programme, an interactive project for children aged seven-eight which takes a holistic approach to teach children about their own health, wellbeing. HITZ is their award-winning education and employability programme which works with over 2,000 14-18 year-olds across England every year. HITZ uses rugby’s core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship to get young people not in education, training or employment (NEET) back into education, training, apprenticeships and/or employment, and is delivered nationally by England’s 12 professional rugby clubs. ‘Move Like A Pro is a 12-week programme designed by Premiership Rugby’s professional rugby coaches for people who aren’t currently particularly active, inspiring a legacy of long-term lifestyle change across the rugby fan community. 

Founded in October 2011 to test out a possible intervention to engage older men in activities that might alleviate the impacts of loneliness, dementia and depression, this session will chart the journey of Sporting Memories from its roots of the two co-founders working with 10 care homes in West Yorkshire to a sustainable, income-generating international organisation. Having trained over 700 partner organisations and volunteers in the delivery of sports reminiscence, developing a credible evidence base and impact reporting, through academic collaboration, has seen over 130 free, community-based, volunteer-led, Sporting Memories Clubs established. Sporting Memories’ move to including accessible physical activities to its sessions has in the past 18 months attracted funding in excess of £1.5m from organisations including Sport England, the Welsh Government, Sport Wales and Public Health Wales, Life Changes Trust, Robertson Trust, Spirit of 2012 and Sport Scotland. Eight years on from founding the organisation, Sporting Memories today collaborates with 100s of organisations to support former footballers and older fans living with dementia, depression or loneliness.