Let Communities be Part of the Change Ahead

Working as one of many colleagues and organisations playing a key role within the multi-sport commitment, in our latest blog, Shirley Hurst, Strategic Lead for Football and Multi-Sport for the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), gives us her views on the programme so far, and in particular, the new Multi-Sport Communities of Practice.

On behalf of the APNO, I’ve been involved in the multi-sport area of work for more than 12 months and it has been a really interesting role so far.  The Multi-Sport Activity and Facilities Fund was announced last year and will predominantly provide revenue funding for multi-sport activity at facilities that have received investment, along with supporting a small number of test and learn capital projects.

Part of this work is to look at how we can ensure that multi-sport projects are rooted in quality community engagement, co-design and collaboration.

Along with Alton Brown, APNO Programme Manager for multi-sport, I am working closely with Active Partnerships from across the network, to implement the fund where the need is greatest, especially in those communities who have typically experienced multiple barriers to participation.

The number of organisations and colleagues engaged in the multi-sport commitment offers an exciting opportunity to work differently with multiple national partners, with everyone bringing something different to the project.

Having several national partners like Sport England, national governing bodies of sport and the Football Foundation involved can feel a little overwhelming at times because it naturally adds complexity, but it’s a very positive approach, widening and maximising the investment opportunities.

This approach enables and supports the Active Partnerships to play a vital role locally, to help deliver investment to the places that really need it, and more importantly to advocate for local communities to be at the heart of investments and new activity.

And this is the important part, and the reason why a Multi-Sport Community of Practice is a useful way of sharing some of the work within the Football Foundation ‘PlayZone Programme’ priority areas, and enabling partners to bring their expertise to help ensure that inclusivity and accessibility is achieved through this work.

Each Community of Practice session is recorded, so they can be played back by anyone unable to attend.

There are so many great stories to share, from Dwain’s account of the journey that Plymouth Argyle Community Trust went on, spending lots of social time getting to know the neighbourhood and estate, including the local hangouts, to the real systematic changes that Oldham Council has made to all of their local work around physical activity, including community engagement with local people at the forefront.

The nuances of each of these stories makes the difference when it comes to creating the building blocks to sustainable, community-led activities in the future.

I want this new Community of Practice network to grow, evolve, and enable all parts of the country to tell their story. Click here to watch the Community of Practice with a focus on community engagement.

What have I learnt so far?

• There is a plethora of resources and organisations to help deliver our ambition of investment being locally led and built around engagement and need.  We have opportunities to connect with partners such as StreetGames and Activity Alliance, who are experts in engagement and understanding needs and effective ways to work with our priority groups. Click here to watch the Community of Practice with a focus on Engaging with Priority Groups.
• The research and insight that is available needs to be heard and acted upon to support real change for inactive people across the country.  Women in Sport and Make Space for Girls evidenced that in the recent Community of Practice session and their call to action was that we listen and test new models of facilities to see if reducing the barriers will work to help increase the confidence of females to be active in a safe and comfortable environment.  Let’s try to build the environment, where possible, to make moving, physical activity and sport activities an easy choice for people to get involved in and clearly demonstrate how it benefits their physical and mental health, allowing them to see the benefits of improving their mood and health. Click here to watch the Community of Practice with a focus on Diversity within the Design of Facilities

• We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just reach out and engage with others to become a valued part of the journey and utilise the resources that are available to help guide the work.
• Let’s open our ears to hear the voices of people from within communities and let them be part of the change ahead. When this works well it feels authentic, relationships are genuine and stronger, and are built on achieving shared outcomes. It feels right to listen to others, share ideas of what is possible, widen the network, bring the practical barriers for people to the forefront and try to tackle these collectively, to make things easier for people to be active. Then we can see the difference it makes to people’s lives and wellbeing.

So, let’s continue to work together to keep listening, connecting, sharing, helping, and learning from each other, and using the Community of Practice as a way of achieving this. Let’s build all the insights and reflections from any organisations that are part of the work through the Community of Practice and keep utilising the sessions and referring to the learnings.

The next session in our online Community of Practice series will be taking place on Wednesday 21st August, 10-11am. This session will focus on ‘Partnership funding’ – the Football Foundation will be leading this, to share learnings from the Phase 1 and 2 PlayZone areas, sources of funding utilised through the programme, and understanding who and how that worked on a local level.

If you would like to attend, click here to book your place.

And if you have a story to share, I encourage you to get in touch – please get involved!