Sport

24 September 2012

 

 
 
 
 
Sport builds trust
  • Sport plays a natural role in cultural relations – all countries and cultures value sport – and the values of sport, at their best, help build trust and engagement between people worldwide.
  • Sport and physical education (PE) are global phenomena that transcend language, religion and culture. Sport provides simple, practical ways of bringing people together and building trust between them, also in cases where people could not or would not ever meet.
  • Sports provide simple, practical ways of bringing people together and building trust.
 
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 creates interest and excitement, stimulating young people to think about themselves and the world in new ways.
 
Demonstrating the UK’s commitment to, and standing in, sport and education 
  • We build sport partnerships with education networks around the world, helping to position the UK at the forefront of the sport, development and education agendas.
 
FACTS
 
International Inspiration, our 2012 Olympic legacy programme, has now reached 13 million young people in 19 countries around the world. Working with partners such as UNICEF, UK Sport and Department for International Development (DFID), we play a central role, focused on reform of physical education curriculum 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. 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 1,000 coaches and reached nearly 300,000 young people across 15 countries. It aims to support a further 3,000 coaches and referees, 600,000 young people, and at least 500,000 teachers and learners through the English language resources.
 
Our Football4Peace project uses football to bring differing communities together, providing opportunities for social contact and educational development across community boundaries. The programme currently operates in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Northern Ireland and Jordan.
 
Our handbook for visitors will be included in the briefing packs of all 18,000 Olympic and 7,000 Paralympic athletes. We are also teaching English to teams visiting London, including the Mexican Paralympic team.
 
Working closely with London 2012 Organising Committee and partners such as the BBC, we will create at least 2,000 new links between schools in the UK and around the world.  This will include links between more than 80 schools in the UK and former schools of leading Olympic athletes in 17 countries. 
 
Thanks to Conflict Pool, which is funded by DFID and the Foreign Office, we are working on community cohesion through football in Pakistan this year.