Member Article

Charity urges Manchester businesses to support sports festival

Eccles-based charity StreetGames is calling for the support of local businesses to host its annual multi-sport festival in Manchester’s iconic venue, Sportcity.

The free all-day festival in August provides young people living in some of Manchester’s most disadvantaged communities the opportunity to try a range of sporting activities in a world-class venue; everything from basketball and tennis to more unusual sports such as parkour, indoor canoeing, zorbing, TriVolle and BMX. Since 2010, over 60,000 young people have attended a StreetGames multi-sport festival.

In Manchester, almost four in ten (39%) children live in poverty, the fourth highest rate in the UK, and these youngsters are hit hardest when it comes to sports participation1. With the average low income family having only £2.55 to spend on sporting activity per week2, young people from disadvantaged communities have fewer chances to play sport compared to their more affluent peers. StreetGames is committed to tackling this inequality.

Leah Glover, aged 20, attended last year’s multi-sport festival; “The StreetGames festival at SportCity last year was an amazing experience. We not only got to visit an inspirational venue and but were able to try out so many different sports, like zorb football and baseball, that I never would have been able to do before. There was so much going on that we couldn’t even try them all. The festival took me out of my comfort zone by making me try new activities, which has boosted my confidence.”

A national partner of Sport England, StreetGames believes in the power of sport for social good. Sport delivered in the right way can achieve positive social outcomes and deliver lasting change in local communities, including tackling anti-social behaviour, employability and social mobility.

Jane Ashworth, CEO of StreetGames comments; “While thousands of athletes will be competing in Rio this summer, many youngsters in the UK will never even get the chance to try the majority of sports on show. Our multi-sport festivals open up a world of new sports for some of the country’s most disadvantaged young people in the nation’s most iconic sporting venues. We are calling on local businesses to help support us in our mission to use sport for social good and motivate more young people to live more active, healthy lifestyles where it is needed the most.”

Since StreetGames’ launch in 2007, almost 500,000 young people have benefited from the organisation’s doorstep sport programme, delivered via a network of more than 600 organisations. Businesses that wish to discuss opportunities from headline sponsor to sampling opportunities should contact www.streetgames.org/challenge-series.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by StreetGames .