boxing and boxercise classes with Knightstone's Foyer projects1. ⢠vouchers to access free swimming sessions. ⢠coac
Creating Active Communities Creating Active Communities is a project funded by Sport England through the Community Sport Activation Fund. It engages residents of social housing estates in Somerset in local sporting activities. Creating Active Communities encourages Somerset residents in areas managed by Knightstone Housing Association (Knightstone) to participate in local sporting activities. Knightstone leads the project which is nearing the end of its first of three years of funding. Background Knightstone applied for funding to increase the number of their residents engaging in local sports activities. The project aims to enable residents to participate in local sports and leisure activities by overcoming barriers such as access, affordability, and time, and in doing so increase community cohesion. There are four main partners: two not-for-profit leisure and sports centres, Tone Leisure and 1610; Somerset Activity & Sports Partnership (SASP), a charitable trust seeking to increase sports participation in the county; and, the national charity Age UK. Knightstone has invested £90,000 over three years to fund a community sports coordinator. The other partners make in-kind contributions including representation at steering group meetings, meeting space, promotional materials, and enabling access to their community groups. Partners suggest that despite some of them being direct competitors, Knightstone works with each of them well to deliver the project for the benefit of residents. About the project The community sports coordinator works with Knightstone’s community empowerment officers and key partners to:
engage residents in priority areas to find out what sport they would like to do explore what potential sporting opportunities are already available find the providers and equipment to set up new sports groups and sessions
Whilst the project aims to engage Knightstone’s residents, the activities are open to other people living in the communities of focus. The sports coordinator consults local residents and makes them aware of sports opportunities in a number of ways, including: door knocking; distributing fliers; attending meetings; holding local fun days; and, accessing communities through partners’ contacts and existing groups. The success of any of these methods appears to rest on the existing relationships the key partners have with a community; where no historical connection exists it has been much more difficult for the project to engage local residents. Most of the activities are held in six to ten week blocks with many one-off community events undertaken to raise the profile of the project, introduce new activities to residents, and engage them in designing initiatives. Activities and opportunities that have been set up include:
boxing and boxercise classes with Knightstone’s Foyer projects1 vouchers to access free swimming sessions coaches providing free instruction on outside gym equipment a beginners kayaking course for Knightstone residents living next to a river
Many of the project’s sports activities are initially free of charge to participants so they can trial them. For residents wishing to continue discounted rates of between £1 and £3.50 per session or reduced membership fees tend to be introduced to make the activities sustainable for longer. Where possible running costs are minimised by having volunteer-led sessions, using venues owned by the partners, and utilising local outdoor green spaces. Interviewees identified several factors which aided the success of the project to date: -
Working with partners to provide a variety of opportunities: The project has developed a varied offer of activities for residents based on the support partners are able to provide. Tone Leisure and 1610 operate the majority of the sports and leisure centres in the county and SASP has connections with local providers. One has opened up its leisure facilities to host activities and introduced free vouchers for swimming for a set period of time; another has taken sports activities to the residents, holding taster sessions at local sports fields and play areas; and a third has identified residents with the potential to lead local activities and provides them with coaching qualifications and support.
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Holding community events to increase engagement: One off sports-related community events are effective in securing local engagement in the project. For example, a rounders tournament followed by a barbeque for one neighbourhood: raised the profile of the project; enabled them to consult people about the activities they would like to do; and, identified key members of the community who would help drive interest in the project.
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Locating activities close to home and in familiar settings: The take up of activities is greater when they are set up close to where the We expected more people to simply participants live and held in local community settings. want to take up a sporting For example, leisure centre instructors providing opportunity[…] What we’ve found is circuit training in primary schools. that, actually, before you go in and
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Establish ‘quick-wins’ in areas or with groups where existing relationships exist: Activities which are set up in communities where the partners already have a presence and/or an existing relationship with residents have been easier to establish and attract more participants.
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make a sporting offer, you need to have had somebody on the ground, or something on the ground, to stimulate and engage, and to create a platform to engage with people on. -
Project lead
The Foyer system provides shelter to young people aged 16-24 years old who are in need of accommodation, for example if they have been rendered homeless due to a breakdown in a parental relationship.
Impact of the project Whilst the number of opportunities to participate in sport has increased and participants are likely to have improved their physical and mental health as a result, the main impacts reported by interviewees is on the wider benefits to individual wellbeing and the community due to the focus of the project. Both partners and participants of the project identified how participants get satisfaction from taking part in the activities through increasing their fitness levels, for example one previously unfit teenage girl can now run for the full 60 minutes of a ball sports session. They also highlight the wider benefits of making friends, gaining You don’t hear them out, sort confidence and broadening their social networks in the of, swearing and going and community. The behaviour and attitude of young people kicking balls against the wall, involved in a weekly ball skills activity was also reported to or anything else like that. have improved as a result of their participation in the sessions. - Coach There is also evidence that participants have gained new skills through the project’s taster sessions. For example, residents living next to the River Tone participated in a six-week introductory course to kayaking established by the project. Following this some members of the group have joined the local canoeing group which is located nearby. This not only ensures the continuity of their participation in sport but also helps to sustain an existing sports club. Other participants, such as young attendees of the boxercise sessions are encouraged to develop qualifications as instructors. This has the potential to provide an occupation for successful trainees and also increase the number of people in the community encouraging more local residents to take part in physical activity. I used to do boxing training a couple of years ago and then, because I went through hard times, they [Foyer] got me back into it… they sent me on a boxing instructor’s course, which is really good […]it made me realise I have potential and sport helped me get back up on my feet again.. -
Participant
The organisations involved in the project have experienced a number of benefits themselves. Some partners suggest it has increased the usage of existing leisure and sports facilities. Some residents have previously not used the centres even when on their doorstep as they have found them to be daunting environments. However, partners’ efforts to meet residents in The significant thing that we’ve been able to do in a number of estate areas is to make the their own neighbourhoods, address their connection more solid between the local potential concerns, and make the facilities provider of leisure services and the local more welcoming has resulted in local people community… leisure centres can still be quite using these amenities. For example, gym an intimidating environment to go into for the instructors from the leisure centre have run first time. Actually breaking down some of boot camps with residents and used the green those barriers and getting a friendly face into gym equipment within their circuit training. the community, running around, doing a whole This has increased residents’ use of the load of sporting activities, who you know is also equipment in their own time. Furthermore, going to be down the leisure centre at some some participants of these classes having built point is part of breaking down that whole up relationships with the leisure centre staff mystique over using the local facilities and are now happy to use the gyms located within engaging with them. their locality. - Project lead
Another benefit reported by one partner was the increased empowerment of their staff. Staff have been able to deliver sports activities to different client groups, outside of their usual leisure centre setting, and work in partnership with local organisations. This has enabled them to develop new skills and has resulted in greater job satisfaction. Through the project, Knightstone has become aware of the important role sport can play in improving community cohesion. The activities are an effective tool to engage residents in their communities and bring different members together. For instance neighbourhood consultation events, such as an estate BBQ and rounders tournament, have given people an opportunity to come together, whilst a sports locker managed by the local residents in one neighbourhood is encouraging them to work together to coordinate access to it. Knightstone is so impressed by the impact of the project in Somerset that it is replicating the project elsewhere. Next steps The project partners believe Sport England’s investment has been critical to its success to date and that the activities would not have been established without it. The partners are looking forward to building on the successes and lessons of their first year, extending the reach and variety of activities they offer to local residents, and developing the sustainability of the project. The sports coordinator will work with the partners, local providers and participants to help them to develop funding structures for the activities to ensure their longevity. The partners are unsure about the sustainability of the project itself once the Sport England funding ends, but they anticipate that the strong links they have developed amongst themselves and with the community will enable many of the groups and clubs to continue. Certainly, we’ve got confidence that a range of sporting activity will continue just in the sense of clubs, and societies, and regular sporting opportunities which have been developed within the local community. So I think there are a number of ways in which we think the programme itself will be sustained beyond our, kind of, potentially direct engagement. -
Partner
Social Return on Investment (SROI) SROI is an approach which seeks to quantify the added value to society created by a service or project. This SROI is evaluative, conducted retrospectively and based on actual outcomes that have already taken place. This draws heavily on the Social Return on Investment in Sport report produced for Sport England by Sheffield Hallam University (April 2015). This estimates the value of sport's impact, on improving six health outcomes and on wider outcomes, including reducing criminal incidences, improving educational attainment, volunteering, and wellbeing. Our SROI calculation estimates that for every £1 invested in Creating Active Communities £7 of social value has been created.
This case study has been developed by CFE Research as part of the national evaluation of the Community Sport Activation Fund that they are undertaking on behalf of Sport England. For more information please visit: https://www.sportengland.org/funding/
