Providing the right support to children and young people facing inequalities

Specialist Advisor for Children and Young People Gary Palmer looks at providing the right support to children and young people facing inequalities.

Last week, my colleague Lorna started this mini-series of blogs as we share what we’re doing with the £200,000 of Tackling Inequalities funding London Sport received from Sport England.

Lorna looked at our community-focused strand of work and, in this blog, I’ll be looking at how we’ll be using the investment to support Children and Young People to create a physical activity habit for life.

The problem

London Sport want our capital to be the most active city in the world.

And we want young people to form a physical activity habit for life that comes from having a range of fun and enjoyable experiences throughout their childhood.

When we set out these bold aspirations, we never considered the possibility of a global pandemic let alone discussed the impact it could have on our young people.

We know that the pandemic has had a significant impact on young people’s physical activity levels, something that has been magnified in under-represented groups, ensuring gaps between those who are active and those who are not, has widened significantly during this period.

What are we doing?

London Sport has received National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities Fund to help ensure young Londoners that are less likely to be active can engage with sport and physical activity in a safe and enjoyable way.

We are working with London Youth, a charity on a mission to improve the lives of young people in London, to identify and support 12 community-focused youth organisations who are able to use sport and physical activity as a way of re-building community

This work will focus in areas in London of the greatest need and will engage one or more of the following target audiences of young people:

• Lower Socio-Economic Groups
• Black, Asian Minority Ethnic Communities
• Young women and girls
• Disabled young people

Our approach

We are working with the organisations to:

• Provide support to sector organisations that connect to our priority audiences that may be experiencing financial hardships at this time.
• Provide opportunities for our priority audiences to be active at this time by adapting offers or providing new offers.
• Co-create activities with these young people, encouraging them to remain active and enjoy the health benefits associated with leading an active lifestyle.
• Combat any feelings of social-isolation and re-integrate young people into society, using sport and physical activity as a hook. The closure of youth centres and schools has deprived many young people of vital social interaction, which can lead to heightened anxiety, feelings of loneliness and risk of mental health problems.
• Reduce anxiety levels and build personal resilience in dealing with adversity.

Grants of up to £3,000 will be awarded to 12 organisations to ensure that they can provide new activity based on demand of the young people in the communities they work in.

We hope that this investment will act as a catalyst for more sport and physical activity in the communities we are supporting and will help young people to form a positive relationship with physical activity once more.

It is vital that we work with the right organisations for the benefit of the right young people in the right places. Only then can we start to truly reduce inequalities across London.