Our work in Sport

09 September 2013

 

SPORT

1. Sport makes a significant contribution to building trust and cultural relationships.

2. We use sport as an important tool to build skills and develop confidence, especially for young people.

3. We demonstrate the UK’s commitment to, and standing in, sport in education and the community.

 

Sport builds trust

•             Sport has a universal language and is of immense importance in cultural relations. The massive global audience for the Olympic Games, the World Cup and other international sporting events is testament to that appeal. The values of sport – open competition and fair play – help build trust between people worldwide.

•             Sport is a global phenomenon that transcends language, religion and culture. It provides simple, practical ways of bringing people together and building trust between them.

 

Developing skills and confidence

•             We use sport to help young people build their skills and confidence, and meet other young people around the world.

•             Sport provides a stimulus for young people to develop their own potential and make a positive impact with their peers and the society they live in.

 

Demonstrating the UK’s commitment to, and standing, in sport in education and the community

•             We build sport partnerships with education and community networks around the world, helping to position the UK at the forefront of the sport for education and development agendas.

 

FACTS

International Inspiration, our 2012 Olympic and Paralympic legacy programme, has now reached 13 million young people in 20 countries around the world. Working with partners such as UNICEF, UK Sport and Department for International Development, we play a central role, focused on Physical Education (PE) curriculum reform and exchange of best practice in PE and school sport.

We are helping improve PE and sport for young people in Iraq, delivering an EU-funded project that will create a national sports strategy for policy makers, practitioners and participants. A total of 55 schools from the UK and Iraq are taking part in the programme.

Premier Skills, a partnership with the Premier League, helps young people develop life skills, coaching skills and English language skills through the medium of community-focused football. Premier Skills has already trained 2,300 coaches and referees and reached 400,000 young people across 20 countries. It aims to support a further 100,000 young people this year, and at least 500,000 teachers and learners through English language resources.

We have partnered with Premiership Rugby and SESI to launch Try Rugby SP in Brazil, a pioneering community rugby programme that is delivering social, education and health outcomes for young people in the state of Sao Paulo.

Our handbook for visitors was included in the briefing packs of all 18,000 Olympic and 7,000 Paralympic athletes. We also taught English to teams visiting London, including the Mexican Paralympic team.

Thanks to Conflict Pool, which is funded by the Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development and the Foreign Office, we are working in Pakistan on DOSTI, a community cohesion through sport initiative.