2020-2021 Impact Report Sporting Equals Advocacy and Influencing W ork: Sport Monitoring Advisory Panel The Sport Monitoring Advisory Panel has been established by Sporting Equals to monitor British publicly funded sport and physical activity organisations. We have seen huge public and sector wide support for the aims of the panel with Sport + Recreation Alliance joining us as a partner to support the work of the panel. During the summer of 2020, publicly funded sport and physical activity organisations released statements acknowledging the previous lack of action by many to improve the experience of the African and Caribbean communities in the sport and physical activity sector. The momentum needs to continue to remain on the agenda and this panel was established to achieve this. Members of the panel include: Chris Ramsey, Maggie Alphonsi MBE, Devon Malcolm, Densign White MBE Ama Agbeze MBE, Kadeena Cox MBE, Alexandra Rickham, Fiona May, Harley Hicks and Rodney Hinds. Sporting Equals Charter The Sporting Equals Charter has been designed to support organisations in the sport and physical activity sector to become inclusive of ethnically diverse communities at all levels. It is a simple and effective framework that will enable us collectively to work towards a sport and physical activity sector that is representative and inclusive of the entire UK population. This year has seen 44 organisations become signatories to the Charter with The LTA , Swim England, Golf Foundation, London Marathon Events, England Lacrosse and The British Equestrian Federation all dev eloping specific action plans to support greater race equality. Campaigns: 20% Target In June 2020 Sporting Equals conducted a call to action to the sector leading the way with a call for 20% ethnically diverse leadership target to be implemented in a revision to the Code for Sports Governance. We have been campaigning for 20% ethnically diverse leadership targets as diversity of thought is crucially needed at the top of the sector in order for change to be felt at a ground level and participation level. Our calls for 20% target revisions were supported by Impact of COVID-19 on DCMS sectors: First Report and endorsed widely by the UK sport and physical activity sector. This included a letter of recommendation from the Minister for Sport for a revision of the Code to UK Sport and Sport England, which is currently being consulted on. Sporting Equals encouraged its membership base to respond to the consultation and provided pointers for responding. Campaigns: Terminology In October 2020 Sporting Equals opened a survey up regarding terminology to its network of Associate Members which at the time consisted of 187 organisations who represent 18,284 members and 88,343 service users. An overwhelming majority cited their frustrations with the use of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic as an umbrella term and advocated for a specific approach. Our network highlighted in instances where ethically justifiable the phrases ethnically diverse communities or diverse ethnic communities can be used. Sporting Equals Race Equality Event On the 23rd March 2021 Sporting Equals held their Race Equality Event which served to share the latest available data regarding the state of the UK sport sector. As part of this session we highlighted persistent disparities that existed for ethnically diverse communities within the sport and physical activity sector with over 500 individuals registered to attend. Michelle Moore hosted the event, there were addresses from Densign White MBE Chair of Sporting Equals, Nigel Huddleston MP Minister for Sport, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Ama Agbeze Athlete, Tim Hollingsworth Chief Executive Sport England, Viveen Taylor Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Sport England, Arun Kang OBE Sporting Equals, Professor Emeritus Kevin Hylton, Pasha Shah Head of Community Engagement – Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Rachel Choong International Para-Badminton Player, Yunus Lunat Solicitor Ison Harrison and Aspire Sports Resolution, Yashmin Harun BEM Chair Muslimah Sports Association, and Isa Guha Presenter and Commentator. Media Our widespread campaigns and advocacy for equal and inclusive spaces within the UK sport and physical activity sector has seen a great deal of media coverage. Including features in The Telegraph, The Guardian, Sky Sports News and The Voice. Our work in advocating for the removal of ‘BAME’ which included a terminology resource outlining inaccurate/outdated terms, rationale and suggestions on what to use instead; highlighted a huge appetite for change to ensure respectful and relatable language use that can and should be replicated across sectors. We have seen mass support and uptake from the UK sport and physical activity sector and recently the government has been advised by the independent Racial Disparities Commission to retire their use of the term ‘BAME’ highlighting the widespread success of our terminology campaigning Sporting Equals Empowering and Supporting Communities Work: Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic Sporting Equals has worked alongside Comic Relief/NET and Sport England to deliver key support to communities within the sport and physical activity sector. In total we supported 110 organisations and distributed over £450,000 of funding. Grant Distribution: Comic Relief/NET (April 2020-March 2021) We have supported 60 organisations and distributed £273,069.27 of funding to help support with Comic Relief/NET Covid19 emergency relief f unding supporting and sustaining organisations to continue services and enabling communities to engage with sport and physical activity opportunities. Grant Distribution: Sport England Tackling Inequalities Fund (April 2020-March 2021) We have supported 50 organisations and distributed £184,131.32 of funding to help support the distribution of the Tackling Inequalities fund supporting grassroots organisation to provide sport and physical activity opportunities for local communities. British Asians in Sport and Physical Activity Advisory Board (BASPA) The Advisory Board developed the BASPA Manifesto to take its campaigns to senior members of NGBs to improve the experience of British Asians across 4 key themes: talent, coaching, workforce and inactivity. These 4 areas have an enormous impact when reviewing what is going wrong for British Asians in sport and physical activity here in the UK. The A dvisory B oard has been hard at work to ensure change is being delivered this has ranged from; supporting Sporting Equals campaigns, responding to reports and studies on Islamophobia in football, online abuse faced by South Asian athletes, aiding with consultation for the Sport England strategy and campaigning for more diversity in sport such as hockey. In addition to developing a video series to highlight South Asian diversity across the sector, including coaching, workforce and talent. Sporting Equals Projects: Breaking Boundaries Breaking Boundaries is a three-year programme (2018 –2021) funded by Spirit of 2012 working in Barking and Dagenham (London), Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, and Slough. It aims to bring together people from different ethnic and faith backgrounds by using cricket as a tool to foster mutual respect and friendships. Delivery in year 2 has achieved some key outputs despite the COVID-19 pandemic which include: • Trained 118 Community Champions who have provided 673 hours of volunteering support to the programme. • Registered attendance across 121 regular event sessions 1 for 164 participants Equally Active Our ‘Equally Active’ project is funded by London Marathon Charitable Trust. It seeks to tackle low participation in sport and physical activity for ethnically diverse communities by working directly within a range of faith centres, including mosques for the Muslim faith, Hindu mandir temples, Sikh gurdwaras, and Christian churches through our pioneering faith centre model. In 2020, engagement took place with 10 sites, 7 were active during lockdown supporting communities to stay active and socially connected through digital delivery • Engagement with an estimated 694 beneficiaries of the programme 1 These are activities run by Breaking Boundaries that involve six or more sessions. and socially distant in person delivery when within the guidelines. Data from Upshot highlighted that around 210 participants have engaged with the project with 2,279 activity contact hours which given the turbulence of the pandemic is a great result. Sporting Equals Collaborative Projects: Unified A ction Unified A ction is a national community leadership programme funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government which is delivered by Sporting Equals in partnership with Youth Sport Trust. The project is designed to enable young people t o become leaders and influence positiv e change in and beyond their communities. Sporting Equals have worked with Youth Sport Trust to help support the recruitment of organisations, training and mentoring of young people. The project has engaged with 32 organisations, 65 young leaders and 32 mentors. Alongside this Sporting Equals have also worked with Maven Search (a corporate r ecruitment firm) t o launch its Youth LeaderBoard Academy and have selected 12 driven young people fr om Unified A ction to take part in the Youth LeaderBoard Academy. Coaching For All The Coaching For All project is funded by Sport England funded project which is delivered by Sporting Communities and Sporting Equals. Coaching For All has focused on developing 30 low socio-economic ethnically diverse individuals. The project aim is to help diversity the coaching workforce in two pilot areas and coaches aged 16+ have been recruited from Stoke-on-Trent and Derby City. Sporting Equals have helped support Sporting Communities with the marketing, training, case studies and the development of a toolkit resource for the project. England Hockey Sporting Equals have worked with England Hockey on a pilot project to help support three clubs to engage with ethnic diverse communities in order to increase the diversity of individuals engaging and participating in Hockey. We have delivered a training needs analysis, helped the clubs with delivery plans and delivered an online marketing and social media workshop. Sporting Equals Research: Golf Foundation Sporting Equals delivered a small research study for the golf foundation about the perceptions of golf and the challenges in engaging young people from ethnic diverse communities. 143 people contributed to the research involving 113 young people, 20 parents and 10 stakeholders from the sport sector. This work will help the Golf Foundation re-evaluate its provision and programmes to ensure it is inclusive and accessible to all. Racism in Sport Survey The Racism in Sport survey was conducted by Sporting Equals in July 2020 and shared with the public through a Guardian Sport exclusive. Our survey was opened to our network to gauge experiences of racism within the UK sport and physical activity sector . The findings wer e based on hundreds of responses from players, coaches and administrators within the ethnically diverse sports community from grassroots level upwards, to explore racism in sport. 81% of respondents reported some form of racism, sometimes overt but often covert. The anonymised feedback from the survey has been used to discuss, shape and influence sect or practices and guide the sector towards a more inclusive and informed position to improve diverse engagement and best practice. Sport England Sporting Equals consulted with its membership to help feed into the new Sport England strategy – ‘Uniting The Movement’. We delivered an insight paper; roundtable discussions, 2 focus groups and interviews which has helped shape the direction of the Sport England 10-year new strategy . The findings of the research provided useful insight regarding the challenges and barriers ethnically diverse communities face and highlighted the need for wider thinking around inclusion and accessibility. For more information about our work and other project and support services offered by Sporting Equals, contact: info@sportingequals.org.uk @sportingequals SportingEquals