📣 ConnectSport Weekly Digest 🌍🏀
Sports Journalists' Association announces 2024 'Sport for Change' Award shortlist; EFL reveals social value of club community programmes; FA launches 'Greener Game', and much more...
👋🏾 Welcome to ConnectSport’s weekly digest on Substack. Each week you can read news, features and innovation from the UK's sport for development sector, and beyond. This edition covers the week ending 22nd November 2024.
🏆 AWARDS: The Sports Journalists’ Association has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Sport for Change Award, supported by Altair Ltd. Six projects focused on driving positive environmental or social change will attend the British Sports Awards celebration event in Parliament on December 9th, when the overall winner will be revealed. Read more.
🌇 SDG 11 SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES: For every £1 spent by EFL clubs and their charities on community investment, £11 is generated in social value according to new research produced by Substance. It was released during the EFL’s ‘Week of Action’ when club community organisations showcase their work in communities across England and Wales. Read more.
🌱 SDG 13 CLIMATE ACTION: The English Football Association launched a new sustainability programme for grassroots football. The FA says ‘Greener Game’ will empower community clubs by providing them with investment opportunities for sustainable upgrades, alongside a wealth of educational resources and energy-saving guides. Read more.
⮑ WEBINAR: On Wednesday 27th November (1400 GMT) Thom Rawson, Sustainability Lead for Wolves FC, and Míde Ní Shúilleabháin, Sustainability Advisor Green Club Programme for the Gaelic Athletic Association, will contribute to a webinar on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency in Football, moderated by Sport Positive founder Claire Poole. Register here.
🏃🏽♀️➡️ SDG 5 GENDER EQUALITY
The Chelsea FC Foundation has launched ‘Inspire Her’ which aims to create habitual change in girls aged nine to 14, instilling long-term positive habits for those key years when girls typically drop out of physical movement, and beyond into early adult life.
This week national charity Women in Sport celebrated its 40th anniversary with a landmark conference calling for a future of equality in sport.
⮑ WEBINAR It's 10 years since Sport England launched 'This Girl Can'. Find out about what's coming in 2025 and beyond for the campaign by signing up for this webinar. Register here.
🥊 SDG 16 PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONGER INSTITUTIONS
Two English Premier League clubs highlighted programmes making local communities safer. Brighton are working with Sussex Police on an innovative Premier League Kicks project that is breaking down barriers and tackling anti-social behaviour.
The Liverpool FC Foundation is supporting the #kNOwKnifeCrime campaign to combat youth knife crime.
🎯 SDG 3 GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Being physically fit can lower the risk of dementia and delay someone developing it by almost 18 months by boosting brain health, according to new research from the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Glasgow Clan Ice Hockey has launched its official charity, the Glasgow Clan Ice Futures Charity, which aims to help promote exercise and healthy eating. Read more in the Daily Record.
This week Yorkshire Cricket Foundation released a short film on its recent Mental Health Awareness Evening. Watch the video below.
NHS Fife has teamed up with Dunfermline Athletic Football Club to raise awareness of mouth cancer. Read more.
Milton Keynes Dons FC hosted 'Man Cave UK’ to provide a safe and supportive space to discuss the importance of mental wellbeing.
⚖️ SDG 10 REDUCED INEQUALITIES
Darts referee Huw Ware says he is “the luckiest gay man in sports” thanks to the support from governing body, the PDC, for a new LGBTQ+ initiative ‘Out on the Oche’. Read the full story at dartsnews.com.
Colchester United Community Foundation has launched its Cerebral Palsy Adult Football Team.
This week the winners of Premiership Rugby’s annual HITZ Awards were announced at Twickenham. Watch the video below.
⮑ WEBINAR On Thursday 5th December (1300 GMT), join Activity Alliance, the national charity and leading voice for disabled people in sport and activity, to hear more about its forthcoming new strategy. Register here.
📈 SDG 8 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
The Leadership Skills Foundation, which helps young people develop the skills, confidence and qualities required to prosper in life, has announced a new three-year strategic partnership with Sport England.
👩🏽👧🏾👦🏽 SDG 11 SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
Arsenal FC has published its first Economic and Social Impact Report which showing how the club supported 4,400 UK jobs and reached more than 14,000 people through community projects during the 2022/23 season.
More than 70 people from across sport and civil society came together to attend the Scottish Football Partnership Trust’s first official networking event, which was supported and co-ordinated by ConnectSport partner Altair Ltd.
Wrexham AFC relaunched its Foundation supported by Hollywood stars and club co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Watch the video below.
The last word….
🙌🏽 Thank you for reading our weekly Substack round-up of news from across the UK’s sport for development sector. ConnectSport CIC is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company which works in partnership with UK Universities to increase awareness and investment for local charities and sport for development organisations.
Our aim is to help more organisations to be able to contribute effectively to globally-recognised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Read about the contribution of sport to the SDGs. For more information, visit connectsport.co.uk or email hello@connectsport.co.uk