About 'Sport for All'

Aiming High: Sport for All is a three year project whose aim is to enable homeless services to develop and deliver opportunities for sport. Homeless Link is supporting agencies and gathering good practice to achieve our outcomes.

Project goals

With excitement building around several international sporting events to be hosted or bid for here in the UK, the beginning of a ‘Golden Decade in British Sport’ cannot be classed a true success without ensuring that sport is made available to all. Aiming High: Sport for All will greatly depend on the involvement of frontline agencies across England and their willingness to engage in a positive way with the project. Over the project’s three years it will work towards three primary outcomes:

  • Improve the capacity for homelessness agencies to deliver sports activities on site.
  • Increase access to mainstream sports activities for homeless people.
  • Provide skills, confidence, self-esteem, health and well-being to those seeking to move towards independent living.

Achieving our Outcomes

Sport for All will work to ensure sustainable sports activities are developed with full client involvement from the outset. Our Sports Development Officer will enable this by:

  • Building partnerships between homelessness agencies and their local authority sports divisions and mainstream sports providers, to ensure homeless people enjoy greater access to local resources
  • Increasing the resources and capacity of homelessness agencies by supporting them to access local funding sources, recruit volunteers and arrange student placements with local universities
  • Creating online resources that will signpost homelessness services to possible funding opportunities and local partnerships as well as offering planning and evaluation tools and case studies
  • Promoting and sharing good practice across regions and services through online resources, learning visits and good practice events
  • Working in partnership with other organisations who are doing similar work, to ensure maximum potential from all projects is achieved
  • Commissioning Groundswell to conduct peer research and monitor outcomes for a sample group of homeless people taking part in sport, with particular focus on the effectiveness of the interventions
  • Making results available for use by agencies as supporting evidence for funding bids.

Who can benefit?

Everyone! To ensure that this really is a project for 'All' and that anyone is able to take part in the benefits of this project who want to, the Sports Development Officer will help agencies to identify what activities will work best for them and their context. It may be a football team, dance classes, walking groups, swimming lessons, self-defence class or even making use of a Wii Fit to engage clients in physical activity!

Supporting Agencies

As homelessness agencies around England work towards becoming 'Places of Change' there is a need to support their efforts to develop and offer meaningful activities. With support from Homeless Link’s Sports Development Officer you can:

  • Share your good practice and case studies with other agencies
  • Evaluate your current programmes to enhance their value
  • Identify opportunities for partnerships in your community with clubs, leisure centres, local government and other sports programmes
  • Develop relationships with your local authority’s Sports Division to better access sport in your community
  • Hear about projects that you can refer your clients to, taking place in your local area
  • Engage your clients in developing and delivering a sports programme on-site
  • Learn about and apply for funding opportunities available in your area and across England
  • Receive ongoing updates on the project’s research and outcomes
  • Use peer research results to support funding applications
  • Participate in learning visits and good practice events around the country to share with other agencies who are working to provide sports activities to their clients.

Further information

To find out more about this project, please contact Lindsey Horsfield, Sports Development Officer at Homeless Link.