Women's Sport Foundation and MENTER
Aruna Sharma - Regional Sport Equality Manager
Menter
62-64 Victoria Road
Cambridge CB4 3DU.
Tel: 01223 355034.
Email
WOMEN AND BME
My name is Aruna Sharma, I have recently been appointed as the new regional Sports Equality Manager covering the East of England. My appointment is to work with the Women’s Sport Foundation and
MENTER in Cambridge, where I am based. The counties I will be covering include: Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire,Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
I will be providing a source of expertise on regional issues relating to women/girls and BME sports, acting as an advisor on policy and strategy issues in order to widen sports participation. I am also looking at setting up some pilot projects with health, media, training and development programmes linking with employment in the sports sectorwithin the East of England.
Within my role, the remit is to investigate and assess participation in sport by young girls and women in addition to BME groups, refugees, asylum seekers, Gypsies, Travellers and migrant workers. Research has been conducted by Ploszajski Lynch Consulting Ltd on behalf of BME Sports Network East, of which Sport England East and MENTER are members, as well as Syzgylesiure and the Womens Sports Foundation indicating the need of a regional worker to evaluate and monitor what is currently set up for these groups to become proactive and self empowered through sports.
Naturally Active
Ian Plowman -
Rural Sport and Recreation Facilitator
Naturally Active
C/O Forest Heath District Council
College Heath Road
Mildenhall
Suffolk IP28 7EY
Tel: 01638 719000
Fax: 01638 716493
Email
RURAL ISSUES
naturallyactive.org has been designed through a cross-agency approach and comprises both The Commercial Recreation Toolkit and The Rural Sport & Recreation Toolkit.
The Commercial Recreation resource is aimed at existing or prospective woodland landowners, managers or tenants in the East of England. Many will be newcomers to commercial recreation and will be seeking new ways to make money from their land and woods.
The Sport & Recreation toolkit focuses on inspiring and supporting those involved in creating active rural communities. This toolkit demonstrates a range of diverse and innovative ways in which sport and recreation activities can be developed through applying practical partnership approaches. The toolkit also contains a range of self-help pages that will aid project design and development.
The site is managed by the naturallyactive working group and partners can contribute to its ongoing management and development through contacting the site manager Ian Plowman.
Fitter Futures
Becky Pheasey - Project Manager
Tel: 01223 372834
Email
Visit the fitter futures website
MID-LIFE
Age Concern is involved in work across the region to combat social exclusion and disadvantages amongst older people, through local information and advice services, social activities, volunteering and by supporting them to influence the development of local services.
Fitter Futures is a new regional project managed by Age Concern Eastern Region, design to increase participation in physical activity and sport by people aged 50+. A fulltime Regional Development Manager, based in the Government Office for the East of England, has been appointed for three years. The post will work with local Age Concerns to develop new partnerships with community sports networks and county sports partnerships to promote physical activity, particularly amongst people in midlife - the 50-60 year olds. Fitter Futures is newly funded by Sport England East with financial support from the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) and GO-East.
English Federation of Disability Sport
Marie Yates -
Regional Manager
EFDS East
c/o Sport England
Crescent House
19 The Crescent
Bedford MK40 2QP
Tel: 0207 273 1827
Fax: 01234 359046
Email
DISABILITY
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) East recently held its second Regional Conference ‘Inspire to Learn… Learn to Inspire’ at Lynnsport & Leisure Park in King’s Lynn. The Conference attracted over one hundred delegates and exhibitors from around the Region and included Paralympic Gold Medallist Dr Kevin Curtis MBE as a keynote speaker. There were a number of workshops that included practical sessions, education specific and impairment specific information and the FA’s How to Coach Disabled Footballers Course.
As a result of networking and consultation at the conference there will be a number of opportunities and support documents being developed, these will include:
A ‘proofing’ document to support the development of sports opportunities for disabled people in both mainstream and disability specific environments.
Support around the Region for language and awareness training.
Supporting the rollout of the Including Disabled Pupils in Physical Education Course/Elements (in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust) and the PE 4 U 2! course around the Region.
Jenny Negus
Sports Partnership Development Manager (Eastern Region)
Youth Inclusion & Support Team
Eastbrook, Shaftesbury Road
Cambridge
CB2 8DF
Tel: 01223 372576
Fax: 01223 372860
SPORT FOR CRIME AND DIVERSION
In 2004, the Community Safety & Regeneration Unit of Go-East commissioned Nacro (the Crime Reduction Charity) to undertake a piece of research to provide a regional analysis of crime prevention programmes that use sport as a tool for reducing crime and anti-social behaviour amongst young people. The research was supported by Sport England, who recognises the key role sport can play in contributing to wider social agendas.
The final report was completed in October 2005 and a regional consultation event was held to disseminate the findings of the research. Those attending were involved in shaping future actions for the Project by taking part in facilitated discussions and by completing questionnaires.
General agreement was reached for an application to be submitted to Sport England’s Community Investment Fund for a Regional Sports Partnership Development Manager (for 3 years) to act as a conduit for agencies at a local, sub-regional, regional and national level to adopt more effective collaborative approaches to this work, allowing better communication, information sharing, joint training and awareness of external agencies. The focus for this work would be in both urban and rural communities, by way of developing pilot projects, targeting areas that are experiencing high levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour, and where engaging young people in sport and physical activity would improve significantly the individual and community well-being.
A full-time Project Manager was seconded to the Youth Inclusion Team from January to April to help co-ordinate the completion of the application and in gathering supporting evidence and submit it to the Regional Sports Board.
As a result, in June 2006, Sport England announced an Award of just over £52k for the first year with further “in principle” funding of £107k towards this project for a further two years.
Nacro, Government Office and Sport England are delighted with the result of this funding bid and look forward to the project making a real contribution towards greater and improved access to sport for disengaged young people within the Eastern Region, and developing existing good practice with stakeholders i.e. Positive Futures, Nacro projects, Prevent and Deter Schemes, Youth Offending Services, Police, Sports Development Teams, Professional Sports Clubs, County Sports Partnerships and like minded services within the region.