Taxonomy term

At Get Doncaster Moving (GDM) we have a mission: to support the youngest in our society and their families to be as active as possible, because the benefits of moving are something that will accompany them for the rest of their lives.

It is with that mission in mind that across Doncaster, partners within our network are working together to create the conditions to help children, young people and their families build healthier, more active lives.

Through a place-based approach, the network is enabling innovative programmes, unlocking new partnerships and supporting communities to develop sustainable activity habits.

This is something we’ve undertaken as a long-term mission.

GDM is continuing its work with local Pokémon Go group ‘Raiding Doncaster and beyond’ to grow this welcoming, inter-generational walking and gaming community, and encouraging new players to engage in this family-friendly activity, and to move more – particularly within Doncaster’s parks and green spaces.  

Trying something new

In sport, the ‘Free Park Tennis’ initiative started a couple of years ago in a local park to expand opportunities for children and families.

Resident volunteers have been trained as Free Park Tennis Activators to deliver free, weekly sessions to the community in two Doncaster parks, which led to one park being awarded ‘Park Venue of the Year’ by Yorkshire Tennis.

Our most recent park venue to host Free Park Tennis sessions, Haslam Park, which started in May this year, has already seen 369 attendances, with four local volunteers upskilled to deliver the weekly sessions.

This has been a fantastic opportunity for people to come along and 'have a go' at tennis in a relaxed and social setting, and it has been very popular with both children and families.

Doncaster’s place-based model played a key role in connecting partners and enabling the Active Start initiative, a programme designed for staff working with children aged 2–5.

Active Start is led by Yorkshire Sport Foundation, working in partnership with, and funded by, the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board's Children and Young People’s Alliance. Their latest Impact Report: Giving children an Active Start is full of learnings and data.

This information is key to the training and resources they provide to early years professionals to help embed movement and active play throughout everyday learning.

This approach not only supports physical development but also communication efforts, social skills and school readiness, giving children the strongest start in life.

Doncaster’s Public Health and Early Years teams have trained as tutors, offering one-on-one support, continuing professional development opportunities and resources to nurseries, schools, childminders and all 12 family hubs, which are places for families to go within their communities to access groups and support.

Many settings have already taken part in centralised training and are now better equipped to encourage movement in class and at home.

But this is not all, because work will continue into the 2025/26 academic year as the programme develops further across South Yorkshire.          

Looking ahead, shifting the dial on children’s engagement in activity will require continued place-based collaboration.

Sustained shared learning, creativity and innovation – alongside a connected, empowered GDM network – will help Doncaster’s young people to move more, play more and thrive.

At the heart of everything we do is fostering better integration and reducing isolation for culturally-diverse communities across the city of Exeter and beyond.

From our days during the pandemic delivering much-needed food parcels to South Asian and other culturally-diverse groups in our communities, our volunteer drivers became acutely aware of how many individuals felt socially isolated and inactive.

During these times, we worked with volunteers from several culturally-diverse communities – such as the Devon Bengali Association and the Exeter Hindu Cultural Centre – to arrange socially-distanced walks, giving many residents their only human contact and physical activity for months.

And those walks were just the beginning.

Fast-forward to today and many of our cultural events also include an element of physical activity within them.

With support from Live and Move, the Sport England Place Partnership in Exeter and Cranbrook, we have been able to run other activities, including zumba, women’s only yoga, badminton, volleyball and cricket.

Activities like these are very attractive to those from South Asian communities particularly.

Word-of-mouth spreads during Friday prayers at the Mosque and via our drop-in service, which supports residents with completing forms and accessing mainstream services, among other things.

And this approach is working.

The latest Live and Move local active lives survey data shows that levels of inactivity amongst culturally-diverse communities in Exeter have now almost decreased to pre-Covid levels.

Rates of inactivity

The success of this programme has enabled us to successfully apply for three years of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to run our Better Connections project, enabling us to further support groups and individuals from South Asian and other communities.

With this funding, we are able to do so much more!

Our South Indian communities run an annual sports day, as does our Filipino community, plus the Devon Bengali Association put together a badminton tournament and a cricket tournament.

All these physical activities have become focal to our residents – whether it’s fun games for children or a more competitive sports match, the aim is to ensure that everybody has fun and is a little bit active.

What’s vital and the reason it works is that we listen to our residents from a variety of ethnicities –  we learn what is important to them and what they were missing at the time and we try and plug the gap.

We’ve learned so much by engaging with different communities in this way.

We know that not all South Asian communities are the same. Each has their own cultural identity and it’s important that any organisation understands and appreciates these.

Culture, religion and food are important to many of the people that we work with. We focus events on these elements and slot physical activity in as appropriate.

Word-of-mouth is by far the most effective communication method.

Friday prayers at the mosque or our drop-in services and the women’s-only yoga sessions, all proved to be helpful ways of communication.

Sustainability comes about because of communities taking a certain amount of ownership over an activity. For instance, the yoga group quickly became ‘their’ yoga group, and as a result, participants have ensured its sustainability.

I’m proud that, through our activities, we are improving health and wellbeing, building cross-cultural understanding and strengthening community relationships in Exeter and across Devon.

I hope other places across England feel they can do the same.

It’s only been a few weeks since I completed my first year as CEO of BAFA and I’ve been reflecting on the journey we’ve taken.

It’s been over 12 months of learning, growth and of laying foundations for the future of American football in the UK and this week I’m proud to share Together to Inspire – our new three-year strategy to inspire the next generation of British American football players, coaches, officials and volunteers by bringing the Britball (British American Football) community together alongside its partners and supporters.

Since securing our initial investment by Sport England we’ve made strong strides as a national governing body.

One of our first priorities was to reset the National Flag Football League under BAFA’s direct management, while reconnecting with clubs and players and also fostering a more inclusive, development-focused culture.

The support from the investment has allowed for some immediate short-term participation growth, but we now have a big opportunity in this space to grow the sport as we build towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

We’ve also invested in our digital infrastructure – recognising that sound systems and processes are critical for long-term sustainability.

Platforms like JustGo are being enhanced to capture better data, helping us understand who’s playing and how to support them.

And in the meantime, our team continues to balance the efforts of our incredible volunteers with the consistency brought by skilled staff and contractors that then align into our chair and board members.

It hasn’t always been easy, but we think all these efforts are vital to our future.

Leading for now and what’s next

A key lesson this year was balancing ‘the urgent and important’ with the long-term priorities.

There’s always something pressing – a complaint to attend to, another scheduling to fix or a new opportunity for growth to be pursued.

But for me it’s been key to be able to step back away from the day-to-day business and connect with members across the game to ask them about the kind of sport we want to build.

That’s what our new long-term strategy aims to answer.

With Together to Inspire we’re not just solving today’s problems – we’re building tomorrow’s potential.

And we’re doing so in continuing our alignment with Sport England’s long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement, by creating a sport that’s inclusive, connected and sustainable.

Whether it’s supporting clubs, widening access or growing the workforce, we’re proud to be part of that mission and the work we have delivered in year one.

Listening, learning and leading with community

The biggest insights in our strategy have come from conversations.

Hearing from coaches, volunteers, officials and players has shaped our understanding of what’s needed, but this is an ongoing activity.

Through National Flag League resets, youth competitions and GB performance camps, we’re creating more spaces for meaningful dialogue – not just consultation, but connection with our community.

U19 regional 11v11 pilot

In 2024, we piloted a regional 11v11 league for under-19 players – removing barriers while offering meaningful development.

It reached 400 players across 12 camps and six fixtures, and it led to 80 additional GB trial invites.

The result? A boost of 16% in under-19 registrations!

The pilot also developed new coaches, several of whom now contribute to GB performance teams.

This model reflects the Uniting the Movement’s focus on youth engagement and inclusive talent pathways.

Strengthening safeguarding

This year, we implemented MyConcern – a secure case management platform powered by First Advantage.

It streamlines case-tracking and integrates DBS checks via JustGo to streamline the process and make it easy and secure for the user.

We’re also working with CPSU and NSPCC to ensure our policies reflect best practice, by furthering a safe and trusted environment for all.

Looking ahead

There’s a lot to be excited about, including:

• reimagining our participation pyramid around accessibility and values
• building a flag-performance system for LA28 and beyond – backed by uksport
• strengthening clubs, empowering volunteers and investing in coaches and officials.

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games present a huge opportunity for us, not just for visibility, but for exciting partnerships with the likes of the NFL UK and BUCS that’ll aid long-term growth together.

We look at these games as the beginning, rather than the end.

Looking back, I’m proud of how far we’ve come – and even more excited about what’s next.

We’ll keep working with our clubs, volunteers and partners to build a thriving future for contact and flag football in the UK.

Together to Inspire is more than a strategy – it’s a goal to work with our partners to create a sport that is values-driven, to make a difference for our clubs, workforce and athletes.

Volunteering levels have been falling over the long-term and this was accelerated by the pandemic, plus we are yet to see volunteering return to pre-pandemic (November 2018-19) levels, as there are still 1.7m (4.8%) fewer volunteers compared to seven years ago (November 2016-17).

This decline is not unique to the sport and physical activity sector.

The Community Life Survey, which measures volunteering across sectors is also reporting that levels of formal volunteering have been in decline, suggesting that there are wider social and economic factors at play.

Our recent State of the Nation report points to some of the wider changes we’ve seen that provide interesting context for the data.  

There has also been little change in who volunteers.

Women, people with disabilities or a long-term health condition and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in volunteering, plus those with two or more characteristics of inequality are least likely to volunteer.

The data shows that, in many ways, volunteering mirrors the stubborn inequalities that we see in sport and physical activity participation.

As a result, community sports clubs and community groups continue to miss out on the valuable skills and experiences a more diverse volunteer base could bring.

It also means that the volunteers who help deliver sport and physical activity are not always representative of the communities they serve, which can pose challenges in staying relevant to the changing needs of diverse participants and communities.

Changing this is fundamental to creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone.  

Making a difference

A good starting point, and our focus in Uniting the Movement, is to focus on the volunteer experience; on changing culture and practices to enhance it, and on making it more inclusive and welcoming.

We recently commissioned Leeds Beckett University to complete an evidence and scoping review to understand the existing evidence and insights out there on the volunteer experience in sport and physical activity.

We’ll publish more details from this work as soon as we can, but it felt relevant here to share a snapshot of what the existing evidence tells us works to enhance the experience of volunteers, particularly those from underrepresented groups. These include:

• supporting the development of feelings of connection to the purpose, values, work or people of the organisation
• ensuring roles align with the individuals’ motivations to volunteer and that these roles are suited to their skills and experience
• making sure volunteers feel able to manage role demands with their available personal resources and know where and how to access support
• establishing an organisational culture that is welcoming, caring, safe and inclusive
• creating environments volunteers feel seen, heard, known and valued throughout all stages of their volunteer journey
• ensuring that organisations critically reflect on volunteer management, policies and practices
• developing person-centred approaches that underpin the recruitment, development and retention of volunteers
• providing a volunteer offer that is diversified and that's made easier through flexible, accessible and appealing roles
• designing non-linear pathways to support the development and retention of volunteers and to address any skills gaps.

What about the future?

Imagine it’s 2035 and these principles and approaches have been embedded across sport and physical activity volunteering.

What changes would we see in the data about who volunteers?

Would there be an increase in volunteering with more people encouraged to give their time to support others to get active?

What we want is to see a future where volunteering in sport is uncomplicated, meaningful, well supported and easily integrated into people’s life.

And for this to be possible we need an inclusive, accessible, people-centric culture where volunteering is accessible and relevant to everyone.

We hope that, in the future, the volunteer workforce will reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, and that the experience of participants is richer and more positive within this inclusive environment.

I’m really looking forward to discussing and reflecting on these findings with our partners to understand how we might create these conditions in more of the clubs, groups and organisations to improve the experience of volunteers across the country.

In the meantime, I hope that this provides some inspiration for even small changes to help improve the experience of volunteers right now.

The survey also demonstrates that those who are lonelier, have less social trust and feel less integrated and included, report lower life-satisfaction scores.

But when it comes to being active, it’s not all about grand marathon events, because special moments happen all year around, and up and down the country, in gyms, swimming pools, parks, courts, pitches or greens, to name but just a few.  

Coming together as a group for a shared common purpose, to connect, to be ourselves, to feel safe and to have purpose is good for our mental health, and sport and physical activity offer fantastic opportunities to foster community.

Creating inclusive environments where everyone belongs

Whether participating or cheering on our local teams, people come together to have fun, move their bodies, boost their mental health and wellbeing to celebrate or commiserate.

Movement brings incredible benefits for both mental and physical wellbeing and everyone should have the chance to experience them.

From players and umpires to volunteers, spectators, families, friends – and even our dogs! – everyone has a role to play in creating welcoming spaces.

Clubhouses, cricket greens, parks, and sports halls can be vibrant, inclusive environments where people feel encouraged to participate, connect and enjoy themselves.

The sport and physical activity community is filled with wisdom, experience and creativity, and there are so many ways to get involved.

Here are just a few practical ideas to bring this vision to life:

• invite a friend or colleague to join you on a walk – you don’t have to walk a marathon, think of short, pleasurable distances at least to start with
• as an organisation, maybe add an extra low-key activity before or after your weekly training or game to provide time for connecting as a community – maybe open up the clubhouse and invite people to have a cup of tea and cake
• open up a club session to include family members and friends, perhaps have a fun introduction to the game that is accessible and suitable for those you want to attract
• organise a volunteering activity which benefits the club or local community and  bring people together to help meet a need, such as painting the club house, organising the store cupboard that hasn’t been sorted since 1974, or hosting an afternoon tea party for a residential home.  

The key thing is to think about those who may feel isolated or going through a low point in their lives and to let them know they’re not by themselves – that they’re part of something bigger, a community that moves, in which there’s space for everybody and that shouldn't let anyone behind.