As part of Northamptonshire Sports work to further understand and learn about the local opportunities and barriers we were joined by Sported and Northamptonshire Rights Equality Council to host an event to open a conversation around racism in sport.
Joined by a wide range of partners, members of the public the conversations focused on what racism in sport looks like locally and ways organisations and individuals can work together to challenge racism and racial inequalities
The discussions on the night make clear that racism and racial inequalities still exist within sport in the UK and that there are longstanding issues, which have resulted in ethnically diverse communities being consistently disadvantaged.
The conversations also highlighted the detrimental impact this has had on individuals, leading to mistrust and exclusion, and makes clear areas where we must see change.
As part of Northamptonshire Sports tackling inequalities work, we recognise that this process will take time, we are determined to learn from this conversation, direct conversations with communities across the county to review and bring transformational change across sport, harnessing its huge power to drive equality and ensuring all parts of the system are fair, welcoming, inclusive, and diverse and that people have positive experiences at every level.
This will involve building on the work we have done over the last few years and working closer with relevant groups or communities in the coming months, to co-create solutions for real, lasting change and to earn trust. We are also working closely with Northamptonshire Cricket Board to discuss barriers to participation in cricket and supporting the development of a new Asian Football and Asian Women’s football advisory groups through the county FA.
As we move further into the new Sport England strategy and setting out or a new county framework for Northamptonshire, we aim to continue seeking the assistance of local residents to dig deeper into those themes, helping to create a shared long-term ambition around how we can collectively tackle them and level out opportunities to be physically active.
Over the coming months we will be holding more open conversations around ‘emerging themes’ and closed conversations within community settings to further get to know organisations. Key aims will be to create a sense of comfort talking about race and racism internally and for partners, knowing how and when to report Hate Crimes alongside directly motivating more ethnically diverse residents to be physically active and join in high profile opportunities locally to increase representation.
Matthew Peleszok, of Northamptonshire Sport has reflected on the last 12 months, saying.
Throughout the last few years, it has been an important time for the organisation to confront the realities of the barriers that still exist in society, our system, and our organisation. The Northamptonshire Sport team, board and partners have made some significant steps together, but we have a long way to go. We must bring individuals, society, and community organisations with us on the journey to battle inequalities faced by many”
If you have any questions or comments please contact: info@northamptonshiresport.org or call 01604 389 976 and the video of the night can be found on the Northamptonshire Sport YouTube Channel