"Communities without easy access to sport are often unhealthy
communities."
Jane Ashworth
Chief Executive, StreetGames
Community sport’s contribution to improving health and
wellbeing has been recognised in two prestigious award
schemes.
Streetgames, the national charity dedicated to developing
doorstep sport in disadvantage communities, won the bronze award in
the Chief Medical Officer’s Public Health Awards.
The charity, which is funded by Sport England, impressed the
judges by demonstrating how taking sport to the doorstep in
disadvantaged communities can help to tackle health inequalities.
In just three years, over one million people have taken part in its
doorstep sport projects. These community projects use volunteers as
mentors and roles models in their own neighbourhoods, inspiring
younger children to get regularly involved with a range of
sports.
Congratulating StreetGames and the evening’s other winners, the
Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said: “All the finalists
are truly inspirational and their projects are beacons of good
practice in the field of public health.”
StreetGames Chief Executive Jane Ashworth was thrilled the
project’s impact had been recognised. “Communities without easy
access to sport are often unhealthy communities,” she said. “The
same socio-economic barriers that hinder young people’s access to
sport produce poor health rates and, in particular, rising levels
of obesity. We tackle this issue by making sport readily available
in a format that engages groups of young people who all too often
have to miss out.”
Meanwhile, an innovative mental health programme in Merseyside
has won the Sport England Community Programme award at this year's
Sport Industry Awards.
Run by the Everton Foundation, the Imagine your Goals initiative
established the area's first mental health football league, raised
awareness of the issues associated with mental illness, and
encouraged further social inclusion.
Participants are referred from project partners Mersey Care NHS
Trust and Imagine Mainstream. 150 regular participants and fifteen
teams now regularly take part in the league.
The initiative was funded through a £40,000 annual bursary
provided by the Premier League and the PFA, administered by the
Football Foundation.