News
This summer looks set to be another fantastic celebration of sport, with the Olympics and Paralympics, men’s Euros, Wimbledon, men’s T20 World Cup and many more truly offering something for everyone to enjoy. For young people living in underserved communities, however, opportunities to connect to these events – and experience the ‘inspiration effect’ of increased participation in sport and physical activity – is all too often limited.
Our Inspiration campaign, now in its third year, aims to change that. As well as creating opportunities for young people to attend major sporting events to spectate or volunteer, the campaign also aims to harness the power of these occasions to support more young people to be active right on their doorstep.
We are delighted to be working with the British Olympic Association as one of their charity partners, leveraging the power of the Team GB brand and athletes to engage young people with the Olympics and Paralympics and inspire positive participation in sport and physical activity. Having worked together to develop an Olympic- and Paralympic-themed training offer, we have delivered this to community organisations in a series of workshops across the country, equipping coaches and volunteers with new skills and ideas to engage the young people they work with through Olympic and Paralympic sports.
We have also partnered with London Youth Games to support their Finals Festival, which this Sunday saw thousands of young Londoners come together for a community sports festival to try out a range of different sports in iconic London 2012 venues. Among those offering activities was Matchroom Boxing, who we are thrilled to have supporting our Inspiration campaign through ticket offers for young people as well as direct engagement in communities. A number of community organisations from our London & South East network also delivered sessions, providing an even broader range of sports for attendees to get involved in – a big thank you to Fight for Peace, Project Zero, London Sportif, Wise Youth Trust, Steel Warriors, XLP, Trapped in Zone One and Future Kidz.
Partnership working with NGBs and others in the sport for development sector has created additional opportunities to connect young people to major sporting events through activation in place. With Wimbledon starting today, our partnership with the LTA SERVES programme gives young people an opportunity to experience tennis on their doorstep in an accessible, low-pressure environment, with activities led by staff who have been upskilled through StreetGames training and the Game, Set, Empower toolkit put together by the LTA.
As the dust settles in the wake of the thrilling final of the men’s T20 World Cup, meanwhile, our collaboration with Chance to Shine and Dynamos Cricket has enabled more young people to connect to cricket and participate in a sport that has traditionally struggled to reach those living in underserved communities.
Watch this space this summer to discover more about how #SportInspires!
