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When young people feel seen and connected, they are less likely to engage in harm and when they feel pride in their street or estate, they are less likely to damage it.

Doorstep sport also changes how places feel. A park filled with organised activity feels different. A street reclaimed for play feels different.

Putting a value on wellbeing

But ultimately, why does this matter?  Recently, we commissioned State of Life to conduct a social value study.

The research organisation looked at survey data from around 1,000 young people taking part in StreetGames’ doorstep sport, which many had entered through youth crime prevention pathways.

Using the WELLBY approach set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance, the study estimated that the wellbeing uplift associated with participation equates to approximately £12,986 per young person, assuming the improvement lasts for one year.

That’s not a participation statistic. That’s the wellbeing value of doorstep sport.

Raising the bar

Our current Youth Endowment Fund-backed evaluation, Towards Sport, is using randomised control trials – the gold standard in evaluation. Results will land next year and we can’t wait!

But one thing is already clear: sport must be intentional. It must understand referral pathways. It must align with youth justice priorities. It must embed strong monitoring and learning. It must work in partnership, not in isolation.

Over the last decade, as a sporting organisation, we’ve become fluent in the youth justice system’s language – concepts and phrases such as trusted adults, contextual safeguarding, public health principles, system impact – and its significance.

This understanding has led us to a key learning: sport cannot simply turn up. It has to fit.

A decade in and still learning

We know many of Sport England system partners and Active Partnerships are active — or increasingly curious — in this space.

That’s encouraging because prevention is long-term work that requires humility, partnership and constant learning.

There is still more to understand and strengthen but the direction is clear.

Ultimately, this work is about supporting place-based community partners to support and protect vulnerable young people, getting them more physically active along the way. 

Think pro-social (not anti-social), build protective factors (not just manage risk) and, above all, use sport not as distraction, but as deliberate prevention and keep putting it where it works best and is needed the most.

These subjects, and more, will now become a series of deep-dive webinars that will be delivered in partnership with Sport England and the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), and you can access the Quarterly Learning Session we had last week with Sport England. 

Together we will get more young people into sport and physical activity and away from crime.

At Get Doncaster Moving (GDM) we have a mission: to support the youngest in our society and their families to be as active as possible, because the benefits of moving are something that will accompany them for the rest of their lives.

It is with that mission in mind that across Doncaster, partners within our network are working together to create the conditions to help children, young people and their families build healthier, more active lives.

Through a place-based approach, the network is enabling innovative programmes, unlocking new partnerships and supporting communities to develop sustainable activity habits.

This is something we’ve undertaken as a long-term mission.

GDM is continuing its work with local Pokémon Go group ‘Raiding Doncaster and beyond’ to grow this welcoming, inter-generational walking and gaming community, and encouraging new players to engage in this family-friendly activity, and to move more – particularly within Doncaster’s parks and green spaces.  

Trying something new

In sport, the ‘Free Park Tennis’ initiative started a couple of years ago in a local park to expand opportunities for children and families.

Resident volunteers have been trained as Free Park Tennis Activators to deliver free, weekly sessions to the community in two Doncaster parks, which led to one park being awarded ‘Park Venue of the Year’ by Yorkshire Tennis.

Our most recent park venue to host Free Park Tennis sessions, Haslam Park, which started in May this year, has already seen 369 attendances, with four local volunteers upskilled to deliver the weekly sessions.

This has been a fantastic opportunity for people to come along and 'have a go' at tennis in a relaxed and social setting, and it has been very popular with both children and families.

Doncaster’s place-based model played a key role in connecting partners and enabling the Active Start initiative, a programme designed for staff working with children aged 2–5.

Active Start is led by Yorkshire Sport Foundation, working in partnership with, and funded by, the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board's Children and Young People’s Alliance. Their latest Impact Report: Giving children an Active Start is full of learnings and data.

This information is key to the training and resources they provide to early years professionals to help embed movement and active play throughout everyday learning.

This approach not only supports physical development but also communication efforts, social skills and school readiness, giving children the strongest start in life.

Doncaster’s Public Health and Early Years teams have trained as tutors, offering one-on-one support, continuing professional development opportunities and resources to nurseries, schools, childminders and all 12 family hubs, which are places for families to go within their communities to access groups and support.

Many settings have already taken part in centralised training and are now better equipped to encourage movement in class and at home.

But this is not all, because work will continue into the 2025/26 academic year as the programme develops further across South Yorkshire.          

Looking ahead, shifting the dial on children’s engagement in activity will require continued place-based collaboration.

Sustained shared learning, creativity and innovation – alongside a connected, empowered GDM network – will help Doncaster’s young people to move more, play more and thrive.

Movement has always been more than exercise for me.

My first motivation was staying healthy and trying to stave off hereditary diseases like hypertension and diabetes that run in my family (and, so far, I'm happy to say it has worked!).

But movement quickly became my outlet, my reminder that I am alive, capable and able to set goals.

The power of movement

When I lace up my trainers and step outside, I am not only moving my body. I am moving through history, community and identity, and I am claiming me. I do this for me.

This year the theme for Black History Month is ‘Standing Firm in Power and Pride’, highlighting the resilience and contributions of the Black community, and I am reminded that movement has long been a form of resistance, survival and celebration for Black people.

From dance to sport, movement has always been our way of claiming space, telling stories and showing strength and, for me, running is my chosen form of movement. It gives me freedom, resilience, and connection – three qualities that shape how I live and lead.

Growing up, I saw elite athletes who looked like me on TV, but I did not see everyday women like me running.

Running was not something I thought belonged to me as an adult (child me, yes, because children always run), but the first time I tried it outside as an adult, something shifted – it was not about speed or medals, it was about finding a rhythm that was mine.

Over the years, running has carried me through joy and pain.

It has helped me navigate life’s challenges, from grief and motherhood to menopause and leadership, and it has also changed how I see myself, not as the fastest or the best, but as someone who shows up, puts one foot in front of the other and keeps going.

Running has also shown me how much representation matters.

There have been times I felt invisible at races or out of place in running communities, but when I began sharing my story and weaving my Jamaican heritage into my running, I discovered others felt the same – and that, by stepping forward, I could help them feel seen.

Showing the real deal

That is why I am proud to be part of the advisory board for This Girl Can.

For the Phase Six of the campaign, we have focused on showing women as they truly are: sweaty, busy, imperfect and joyful.

Not polished versions of women exercising effortlessly, but showing real women making time for movement in the midst of their busy lives.

Being on the advisory board has given me the chance to share my perspective, especially around the barriers that Black women face in sport.

From worries about hair care, to feeling unsafe in certain spaces, to simply not seeing ourselves represented, these are real issues that stop many of us from moving freely.

Phase Six is about breaking those barriers down and telling a wider story of who belongs in movement.

This new stage of the campaign is also about making sure that when women see the campaign, they see someone who looks like them, lives like them and feels like them. Because when you can see yourself, you start to believe you belong.

From local to national

In 2019, I founded Black Girls Do Run UK.

What began as a small idea, creating space for a handful of Black women to run together, has grown into a nationwide community, because we are more than a running group. We are a family!

We celebrate milestones, we share struggles and, more than anything, we create spaces where Black women can move without judgement or stereotype.

Alongside leading the community, I hold both the Leadership in Running Fitness and Coaching in Running Fitness qualifications.

These have allowed me to support runners of all abilities, from beginners to those chasing big milestones, and to bring structured, safe and inclusive coaching into our spaces.

For us, running is not about chasing times, and all about creating a memory bank, not metrics.

It is about laughing mid-race, stopping for photos and supporting each other at the back of the pack. It is about belonging.

Together in strength

Black Girls Do Run UK exists because representation matters.

Too often, Black women are absent from the imagery of running, but by showing up in our kit at races and online, we are rewriting that narrative. We are saying we are here, we run and we belong!

For me, movement is freedom. It is the freedom to be myself, to take up space and to live well in my body and during Black History Month, that freedom feels especially powerful.

We honour the struggles of those before us, celebrate the present and move with hope for those who will come after because movement connects past, present and future.

It reminds us that while the barriers are real, so is our resilience, and it proves that when women move, communities move and change becomes possible.

So this Black History Month, I celebrate movement in all its forms: the steps, the strides, the miles and the memories. Movement has shaped me, and I will keep moving, for myself, for my community, and for the generations yet to come.

Decisions about where new homes are built, how streets are laid out and whether parks, pavements and public transport are prioritised, all play a role in shaping how active people can be in their daily lives.

Yet too often, physical activity is seen as a leisure issue, rather than a systemic one rooted in spatial planning, social justice and public health.

To effectively embed physical activity into our environments and daily routines must be a shared ambition across sectors and professions – from planning and transport, to health and housing, as well as for leisure and open-space management.

Want to go out to play?

For example, it is no use creating miles of cycle paths if we are creating homes and town centres without space for secure cycle storage, not providing opportunities for our children to learn to ride bikes through programmes like Bikeability, or addressing poor attitudes towards cycling and reducing traffic speeds so that people (especially parents and caregivers) feel it is safe to ride even short distances.

Equally, we cannot expect our children to play out, like many of us used to do back in the day, if their neighbourhood streets and doorstep places are full of parked cars (too often on pavements) and moving traffic.

Research shows that basic, free outdoor play has fallen to its lowest level ever, with now only one in four children playing outside regularly compared to their grandparents’ generation, where almost three-quarters played outside on a regular basis.

Too often when we think about play in neighbourhoods, we default to thinking about structured activity and providing spaces that are designated and equipped.

Whilst play parks are important assets for all neighbourhoods, the doorstep and immediate street is also critical, and importantly, a space for children to play on a daily basis.

Accessible, safe street space is the most inclusive step we could take to make places more active and friendly for children, meaning we need to grapple with car and parking-centric design.

All of this is why a systems approach is needed – one that listens to communities, addresses inequalities and prioritises long-term health outcomes in decisions about land usage and investment.

Active environments cannot be a ‘nice to have’; they must be seen as essential infrastructure for a healthier, more equitable future.

The Town and Country Planning Association works to make homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive.

We work to influence and shape the planning system at the national and local level, but we recognise the multi-dimensional nature of place-making and how places and spaces are shaped by communities and can be ‘activated’ for activity.

For the last six years, in a partnership with Sport England, we have worked to create healthier, more active communities, building knowledge and capacity with partners and local authorities and advocating for health and activity to be embedded in planning policy.

We saw standout examples right across the UK along with moments of challenge and connection with people saying: “Let’s try to make this work for everybody.”

We saw people refusing to ignore the problem and we saw movement in every sense of the word.

Together, those short clips reached over 240,000 people and generated more than 4,000 meaningful engagements.

The need for collective action

This year we’re attempting to go even further by shining a light on more inclusive ways to get active outdoors.

That part’s a given and this time it’ll include urban parks, coastlines and more examples of the disabled community choosing to move in whatever way works for them across our great outdoors.

We now want even more of you to get involved and embrace the idea of a truly accessible outdoors.

At the heart of the campaign is the social model of disability, which tells us that it’s the environment, not the individual, that disables people, so meaningful progress relies on collective action and everyone (designers, organisers, providers, funders etc) has a role to play.

The outdoors shouldn’t be a privilege.

It should be welcoming with everybody in mind, so we’re encouraging organisations, community groups, clubs and disabled people to join the conversation and we want you to share what’s happening in your area.

Post about your experiences and help grow visibility using the hashtag #AccessibleOutdoors, all in the spirit of celebrating the great examples we know are out there and that crucially encourage change, so more and more of our outdoor spaces are available to everybody.

Throughout July, we’ll be curating and sharing those stories through our social media channels with @EveryBodyMoves and on our website.

We’ve also launched the ‘Every Body Moves Club' on Strava to help more people connect, so please follow along and join the conversation with like-minded people.

Every Body Moves is co-produced with disabled people and exists to transform how sport and physical activity are delivered, represented and accessed across the UK.

Campaigns like #AccessibleOutdoors help shift public perception, influence design decisions and create ripple effects that stretch far beyond a hashtag.

There’s still a way to go, but the more people taking part or spreading the message, the closer we can get and I hope you’ll be part of it.

Follow #AccessibleOutdoors Month or join us on social media by searching @EveryBodyMoves on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.

It all started with a marathon I wasn’t ready for.

I signed up on a whim for the 2014 Brighton Marathon and with less than two months to train. I had no idea what I was doing, but something about the challenge – the movement, the solitude, the sheer madness – stuck with me.

In time, running became more than a personal escape. It became the thing that led me to one of the most important communities of my life: a place where I could be queer, be myself and still be called a runner.

I was always interested in sport growing up but struggled to match my enthusiasm with ability when it came to team games.

Finding my place in sport

Although I wasn’t consciously questioning my sexuality at the time, looking back I’m sure part of that stemmed from the changing room anxiety that will be familiar to many LGBTQ+ people.

I came out – to myself and to others – relatively late in life and even then, I found it hard to fit in.

There were gay people in my life, but they were individuals rather than a network, and I was still searching for a sense of community.

Despite what I now realise was foolish naivety, I completed that first race in a time I couldn’t have dreamed of.

The following year I ran it again, that time fundraising for Stonewall. Running that race in one of Europe’s queerest cities was a tremendous rush.

I can still hear the slightly louder cheers from the local LGBTQ+ community as I shuffled past in my bespoke Stonewall vest, but despite this newfound pride, running was still a solitary activity.

I’d heard of London Frontrunners – an LGBTQ+ running club – but hadn’t worked up the courage to go.

Eventually, I turned up one Monday evening in Waterloo, where I found myself surrounded by over 100 runners who all seemed to know each other and were completely at ease laughing, stretching and chatting like old friends.

I was too nervous to even announce myself as a newcomer and tried my best to blend into the background.

On the run itself, I went off too fast and got hopelessly lost, so by the time I returned to the changing rooms, everyone had gone.

Feeling chastened, I didn’t return for a few months until eventually I did. Then I went again and again.

Gradually, I started to relax – I even spoke to people!

Soon I was going to the post-run socials and signing up for races – this time proudly wearing a Frontrunners vest –  and I’ve never looked back.

Over the next few years, I formed some of the most special and enduring friendships of my life, took part in my first Pride marches and, for the first time, I felt part of a community.

I moved to Manchester in early 2021, and one of the first things I did post-lockdown was joining Manchester Frontrunners.

Barely knowing anyone in the city, the club became a crucial social lifeline.

Creating a new and space for the LGBTQ+ community

When Manchester didn’t work out and I moved to Bristol in 2022, I immediately looked to see if there was a local Frontrunners. There wasn’t.

“Set one up!” my friends said and while it felt daunting, it was also exciting so after a couple of months of procrastination, I decided to take the plunge but only to find someone had just beaten me to it, so I joined straight away and offered to help.

Slowly, we started to grow from two or three people to a much larger, enthusiastic community.

Many were like me: new to the city and looking to make friends.

It’s taken time and patience, but we now feel part of the LGBTQ+ community in Bristol.

One of the best outcomes has been connecting with other local LGBTQ+ sports clubs and we regularly organise joint socials to bring even more people together.

It’s also been incredible watching some of our runners take part in their first-ever races – including this year’s Bristol Half Marathon – proudly wearing their Bristol Frontrunners t-shirts.

This summer we’ll be marching at Bristol Pride for the first time and we’ll do so loudly, proudly and with open arms for anyone who wants to join.

We’re especially keen to speak to people who don’t think running is “for them”, because it is!

It’s an incredibly challenging time for the LGBTQ+ community, both here in the UK and around the world as trans people, in particular, are reporting increasing hostility and barriers to participation in sport.

That’s why it’s more important than ever that clubs like ours do everything we can to counteract that – by providing support, solidarity and safety.

Frontrunners is – and always will be – for everyone, so we stand and run together.

Discovering running – and the global Frontrunners community – has been life-changing for me and for so many others who were once bullied in school, sidelined in sport and made to feel like they didn’t belong.

So it doesn’t matter whether someone is training for an ultramarathon or just joining us for a Wednesday jog and a chat.

What matters is that they’re part of something. In this case, one big, proud, welcoming community who runs together in pride.

I recommend you checking the Pride Sports LGBT+ club finder to find something community-led local to you.

And if you want to follow us on social media, we’re on Instagram, Strava and on Run Together.

Tackling climate change and maintaining the health benefits of sport are two sides of the same coin, not mutually exclusive.

And don’t let anyone tell you it’s pointless doing anything in England as ultimately it’s all about China and India.

Our investment does make a direct difference, whether it’s simple adaptation – like planting trees around sport pitches to reduce the impact of flooding and getting people back playing more quickly – or reducing energy costs of councils, which can be reinvested in sports, by upgrading swimming pools through new technologies.

Secondly, our royal charter explicitly sets out Sport England’s duty to promote the ethical practice of sport and physical activity.

It’s a core part of our remit and environmental sustainability and net zero are at the heart of most ethical organisational frameworks, including the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Thirdly and finally, sport has a unique global megaphone to reach, mobilise and galvanise people.

With an estimated three billion fans worldwide – roughly a third of the global population – the sports sector is a direct and practical mouthpiece to communicate climate and energy issues to large and diverse audiences.

And Sport England has the power to be the nation’s biggest convener – from the more than 130 system partners, including the national governing bodies of sport to our precious grassroots community system, where 17.2m or more than 35% of the population are members. Why wouldn’t we use this voice and network to tackle the biggest challenge facing the planet?

We still have a lot of work to do, but it was a proud moment to beat such strong competition in the likes of Formula E, the International Olympic Committee, Sail GP, the MCC and Wembley Stadium.

Thanks to the Sport Industry Awards for their recognition that we are on the right track and thanks to so many of you who have made a difference at Sport England.

Thanks to Tim Hollingsworth, our CEO, for championing this work and speaking eloquently at the ceremony. Invariably we are doing this on the side of the desk on top of our wider work, because we believe it matters.

Winning awards shouldn’t be why we do this work, but it can give us confidence, pride and energy to help us go faster.

Now for accelerating our work on the journey.

Inactivity is inequality and being inactive is not just about personal choice. It also comes from a lack of opportunities.

Often, people in low-income communities simply don’t have the access to the same facilities or opportunities as those in wealthier areas. And it’s exactly these places that would benefit the most from living more active lives. 

Understanding inactivity at a local level

Being able to be physically active in our communities and opening these up with streets, parks and spaces where everybody can live happier, healthier and more fulfilled lives are all key factors to being active.

But right now, we don’t all have the same opportunities to get involved in physical activity or sport close to home, work or education.

While some people can be inspired and empowered by their surroundings, others feel trapped or restricted by them and through our long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement, Sport England is determined to level the playing field.  

That’s why we have begun expanding our Place Partnerships to the communities who need the most support to live more active lives.

In its first phase and through a new set of resources for partners working in local settings, we’re updating and enhancing our support to 53 places across the country.  

Key to this is our partner network of Active Partnerships.

As our local system partners that span across every corner of the country, Active Partnerships are working closely with key stakeholders in places who need the most support to activate their communities.

Because by growing relationships with local community organisations that people know and trust, we can collectively improve our understanding around what people want to see for their community, build on the valuable things and people that are already there, and address the gaps in support or knowledge that stand in the way of people benefiting from active lives.  

In my role as executive director of Place at Sport England, over the last 18 months I have had the privilege of visiting many of our current Place Partnerships and have seen first-hand this approach in action.

I am completely convinced that, together, we can find the right support and solutions to get each community moving.  

Looking for answers together

Key to this is a new kind of leadership, with leaders that listen, collaborate, devolve decisions and lead with empathy and bravery.

When leaders across all parts of the system are willing and able to change, the key conditions and ways of working will become embedded and long-lasting, allowing for transformational change within communities to be achieved. 

Whether it's senior leaders, those who are working directly with people and communities or even those working behind the scenes in back-office functions, everyone has a role to play in creating (and sustaining) the conditions for enabling successful place-based systemic working.   

We still don’t have all the answers – but that’s the whole point.

Because when it comes to the needs and aspirations of a community, nobody will ever know better than the brilliant, dedicated people who have made their lives there. 

But by listening, collaborating and harnessing the enthusiasm and expertise at the heart of each community, we can build better places across England. 

Places people love to live, move in and thrive.  

Around midnight on Saturday, 24 April 2021, 20-year-old Folajimi ‘Jimi’ Olubunmi-Adewole was walking home from work. He was crossing London Bridge with his best friend, Bernard Kosia, when they heard a woman crying for help.

The cries were coming from below. The woman had fallen into the River Thames.

Jimi was adamant about what should happen next. He told Bernard to stay on land because he didn’t know how to swim. As for Jimi, he decided to jump in to try and save her.

The BSA is the commissioning body of the pioneering research project #OurSwimStory, which investigated the attitudes towards, and the experiences of, water safety and aquatic activity among communities of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage in the UK.

This research was conducted in partnership with AKD Solutions (an organisational change consultancy) and provided a series of insightful and eye-opening findings, such as 48% of survey respondents weren’t aware of how to stay safe in water, 44% said they had a fear of water, and 33% of Black survey respondents indicated that hair was a barrier to engaging in aquatic activity, making hair the most commonly selected barrier within this group.

In addition, the cost of aquatic activity was highlighted as a barrier to engagement, and with the current cost of living crisis (and the associated reduction in disposable income) this barrier is expected to have an increasing impact on participation.

Moreover, some of the participants didn’t perceive swimming and aquatic activity as being for them, rather they associated aquatic activity with white and middle-class populations.

But, there is a positive.

Based on the barriers identified within the #OurSwimStory research, eleven recommendations were formulated, with the aim of increasing water safety awareness and aquatic participation.

These recommendations were reviewed by a panel of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion professionals, and include the following:

• Use a replicable inclusivity framework to understand local communities.
• Increase access to water-safety knowledge and skills sessions for ethnically diverse communities.
• Recruit and train an ethnically diverse workforce.

We hope that the aquatic sector (including governing bodies, leisure operators and policy makers) will collaborate with the BSA in order to implement these recommendations and encourage more people to find their place in the water on their own terms.

Our goal is for everybody to be able to enjoy being in, on and around the water, and to do so in a way that’s safe and fun.

We aim to build trust within disenfranchised communities and improve access to the endless benefits and opportunities that the ever-changing aquatic sector has to offer.

We do this through providing life-saving education.

People tend to know that you should call 999 in an emergency. However, it’s less commonly known that if you see someone in trouble in the water you should ask for the coastguard if you’re by the sea or the fire brigade if you’re inland.

Bernard Kosia said that his best friend, Jimi, was a confident swimmer.

However, there is evidence that around half of those who die from accidental drowning are deemed to be swimmers, revealing that being able to swim is not sufficient to be safe in, on and around the water.

Moreover, 60% of accidental drownings happen inland - in places like rivers, reservoirs, lakes and quarries - and of those who drown, more than 80% are men.

In addition, recent evidence from the National Child Mortality Database reveals that the risk of drowning is higher among children and young people living in England’s most deprived neighbourhoods, as well as among children and young people of Black or Black British heritage.

As a young Black man from south-east London, we don’t know what kind of water safety education Jimi was exposed to, but what we do know is that education can save lives.

This work goes beyond Black History Month. It’s our every day.

We work for everybody to enjoy the water, to thrive and to reap the benefits.

We work to improve access to employment opportunities within the aquatic sector.

But mostly, we work so that tragic deaths, like Jimi’s, don’t happen again.

Anyone can drown. No one should.