📣 ConnectSport Weekly Digest 🌍🏀
Cricket supports recovery from substance use in Hartlepool; community sport creates £100bn+ in social value; check out #TimeTogether and 'Golf Fore Her'; enter the SJA's Sport for Change Award...
👋🏾 Welcome to ConnectSport’s new weekly digest on Substack. Each week you can read news, features and innovation from the UK's sport for development sector. This edition covers the week ending 25th October 2024.
🏏 HEALTH & WELLBEING: A cricket team set up in Hartlepool to help local people recovering from substance use has played its first game. The Recovery Cricket Group is run by START the drug and alcohol support service run by Hartlepool Borough Council and Foundations.
⮑ Gareth Jones, who captained the team in the inaugural match, explained: "In recovery or when you’re in addiction you’re used to whatever your addiction was. This is a new scope to learn something different that you’ve never even thought of or dreamed about doing.” Read more. #SDG3
⚖️ SOCIAL VALUE: More than £107billion of social value was created by community sport in 2022/23 alone, according to figures released by Sport England this week. This represents both primary value - the wellbeing benefits that individuals experience from being active - and secondary value, which reflects the cost savings to public services like healthcare. CEO Tim Hollingsworth commented: “With so many challenges facing our society, it’s more important than ever that we demonstrate the contribution that sport and physical activity makes to our nation.” Read the report.
⮑ Meanwhile ukactive is calling on the Government to extend the Opening School Facilities programme in its Budget next week. The programme, which is midway through its three-year funding cycle, is delivered in partnership with StreetGames, Youth Sport Trust and Active Partnerships. #SDG17
🏃🏿♀️🏃🏿♀️GENDER EQUALITY: Women in Sport is promoting its annual #TimeTogether campaign which aims to promote the benefits of mothers and daughters, or nieces, participating in sport and physical activity together. It runs until November 1st. Access resources, stories and activities here. #SDG5
⛳ England Golf have launched an all-new webpage dedicated to supporting female golfers. ‘Golf Fore Her’ covers topics like the menstrual cycle, hormonal contraception, breast health, menopause, the pelvic floor and pre- and post-natal. Visit the webpage. #SDG5
⛵ TACKLING INEQUALITY: A watersports festival gave more than 1,000 young people from some of Birmingham’s most under-served communities the chance to experience a range of watersports for free. Organised by StreetGames in partnership with Paddle UK, British Rowing, and Andrew Simpson Sailing, the festival was part of the ongoing Birmingham Community Paddle Sports Project. Read more. #SDG6
⮑ It’s been a record-breaking year for junior parkrun. In the past 12 months, more than one million junior parkruns have been completed by young people across the UK, thanks to support from London Marathon Foundation. One example is Hesketh Park junior parkrun in Southport where 37% of households face deprivation. The event, which now regularly attracts over 100 junior parkrunners, has had a significant impact on the community. Read the full story. #SDG10
🌈 INCLUSION: More than 500 students from local schools will take part in Charlton Athletic Football Club’s annual ‘Red, White and Black Day’ parade which celebrates diversity and inclusion. Saturday’s parade, in partnership with Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) and University of Greenwich, will see a record number of students take part. #SDG10
⚽ The Community Trust at Mansfield Town Football Club has begun working with a local hospital, Sherwood Oaks, to deliver multi-sport sessions which will include connection and therapeutic relationship building so patients can access services better when in the community. Read more on the Trust’s website. #SDG3
🔎 ‘Get Doncaster Moving’, one of 12 Local Delivery Pilots supported by Sport England, has published it annual impact report. The report illustrates how overall physical inactivity levels are falling, and connections within its network have trebled over the past year. Read more. #SDG11
💷 FUNDING: Paddle England has announced that the Stronger Together Fund is now open for applications. The fund aims to support innovative projects which enable more people to enjoy paddling regardless of identity, ability or circumstance. Apply by November 15th. #SDG10
⮑ In other funding news, could this present an open goal for sport for development charities? The UK Government has announced plans to restore civil society organisations to “the centre of our national life”. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy spoke to the Guardian after unveiling a new deal between the Government and the £54bn-a-year charity sector. #SDG17
💻 INNOVATION: The International Platform on Sport and Development, sportanddev.org, has partnered with Ready Sport Global (READY) to provide free guidance and a toolkit on Artificial Intelligence for the sector. ‘Discover AI’ can be accessed here. #SDG17
⮑ Meanwhile check out the ‘Anchors of Belonging Framework’ from the Centre of Social Justice in Sport and Society. Contact a.stride@leedsbeckett.ac.uk or l.j.norman@leedsbeckett.ac.uk to find out more.
🏀 GUIDANCE: ENGSO Youth, the independent youth body of ENGSO (the European organisation for grassroots sport), has published new guidance on mental health through physical activity. Co-funded by the European Union, read about the ‘Hooray’ project here. #SDG3
💡 EVENT: A leadership summit for club community foundations and sport for development charities will take place at the Social Hub in Glasgow on November 19th. Network and hear from Falkirk Foundation, Motherwell FC Community Trust, Rangers Charity Foundation, Scottish Football Partnership and Street Soccer Scotland, among others. Contact angus@thenameofthegame.org for more details.
🗣️ ConnectSport MD Simon Lansley was delighted to speak to students attending the Masters programme in Sports Journalism at St Mary’s University, Twickenham this week as we mark the relaunch of ConnectSport as a not-for-profit CIC (Community Interest Company). This was the first in a series of lectures and practice opportunities that we are delivering at Universities across the UK, with the students subsequently producing content about under-represented charities and sport for development organisations. Read more. #SDG4
🚨 NOMINATE NOW! A reminder that nominations are being invited for the ‘Sport for Change’ category in the 2024 SJA British Sports Awards, sponsored by Altair Ltd. The award, which was created in partnership with ConnectSport in 2018, seeks to highlight the work of charities and grassroots organisations using sport to generate positive 'ESG' (environmental, social, governance) outcomes across the UK. Nominate now. #SDG17
⮑ The award is part of the Sports Journalists’ Association’s British Sports Awards with winners announced live on Sky Sports on November 20.
The last word….
🙌🏽 Thank you for reading our weekly Substack round-up of news from across the UK’s sport for development sector. As former national journalists and media executives, at ConnectSport we are passionate about the potential of sport and physical activity to generate targeted environmental, social and economic outcomes. Supported by the brilliant people at Altair Ltd (check them out here) we recently relaunched as a CIC (Community Interest Company) with all profits being reinvested in our work with UK Universities to help showcase the work of underfunded and overlooked charities and organisations, so please follow and share…
Read more at connectsport.co.uk and contact us at hello@connectsport.co.uk