Resources for sports projects

Busy frontline staff members have limited time and resources to develop sports projects. On this page, Homeless Link's Sports Toolkit includes resources, guidance, templates and contacts for planning a sports project or one-off activity.

Finding Facilities and Clubs

• Facilities and clubs can often be found by visiting that sport's National Governing Body (NGB) website.

Active Places: Sport England's website allowing you to search for different sports facilities in a number of different ways.
Tennis courts: Website for the parks tennis community, letting you find courts, coaches and players across the UK.
Pitch Finder: Find football pitches using this service offered by the Football Foundation, allowing you to locate football grounds across the UK.
Gym Directory: Find a UK gym, personal trainer, sports club, leisure centre or martial arts centre.
Rinks and Clubs: Find rinks and clubs across the UK on the National Ice Skating Association's website.

Sports Toolkit

Project Planning

Developing a project: Brief guidance for outlining and developing a project.

Homeless Football Club & League: A case study of Liverpool Homeless FC, a fully FA affiliated league with teams from 12 services and running three divisions of competition throughout the year.

Sports Menu: A selection of cards that can be used when working with clients to identify potential sports activities.

Sport England's Recognised Sports: A list of the sports recognised by Sport England, which is often used for funding applications. May also be used in identifying potential sports activities.

Sports Survey: When planning a sports programme it is vital to involve clients in the initial discussions to ensure they want to participate in the activities. Here is a template for a survey that could be modified for use in your service.

Planning Events: A peer research report by Groundswell having completed an event analysis at a football tournament involving homeless people in England. Included are recommendations when planning and running such an activity.

A sustainable event: Eleven tips on how you can ensure your sports event is sustainable - in every sense of the word.

Managing Risk

Risk Register Template: A tool to help larger projects consider the potential risks and opportunities that their work will raise.

Risk Assessment Template: A tool to help services (offering one-off or less complex sports projects) identify and measure potential hazards / risks raised by a sports activity.

Risk Assessment Guidance: Advice and methodology for preparing a risk assessment - this includes the legal need to prepare risk assessments and ways of controlling hazards.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Some tools being used to monitor and evaluate projects in sport and homeless services:

• Outcomes Star
• Street Games M&E tool
• Streetwise Opera Evaluation Tree
• Charities Evaluation Services resources
• SPRS.

Resources for Local Authorities

Sport England has many different tools and resources available for local authorities including their newly published In It For the Long Run toolkit.

Local Authorities can get advice, resources, information on local sports profiles and support from Sport England on the Local Government section of their website.

CLOA (Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association): A professional association and peer support network for those involved in public sector cultural and leisure activities.

Further Information

To share your own resources or ask further questions about offering sports activities and project planning, please contact Lindsey Horsfield, Sports Development Officer at Homeless Link.