"It’s given me confidence not only in sport but socially and in
school.”
Sport Unlimited is an innovative new youth sports
programme which cascades funding to local communities via the
county sports partnerships network.
It’s targeted at youngsters who may have some interest in sport,
but aren’t particularly engaged with community or club sport.
The first step in the programme is to establish what sports
young people actually want to do.
Popular alternative sports include trampolining, climbing, free
running (also known as parkour), BMX, street dance, skiing and
horse riding. These sit alongside more traditional sports such as
football, badminton and tennis, often repackaged or adapted to be
more relevant to a younger audience.
Local providers organise 10-week, high-quality Sport Unlimited
taster sessions designed to inspire youngsters to sign up for
longer-term participation in local clubs and in the community. We
aim to get 900,000 young people along to these taster sessions, and
want at least a third (300,000) to commit to their chosen sport
once the 10 weeks are up.
The first full year’s results will be available in summer
2009.
The spirit of Sport Unlimited is captured by 14-year-old
Chelsea, who talked to us during initial research. She was worried
about looking silly in front of girls who were in sports teams at
her school. After the taster sailing sessions she said:
“It’s really fun… you make a lot of friends and get more
confident. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a complete beginner,
you learn along the way. It’s given me confidence not only in sport
but socially and in school.”
We’ve seen success across the country during the first year of
the programme, Greater Sport, in Manchester, has run over 560
taster sessions featuring 45 different sports. In Bradford, a
series of Saturday events were staged to encourage young Muslims to
take up more sport.