At Access Sport we know sport has the power to bring individuals together from diverse backgrounds, which can allow us to promote long-term social change and create a more equitable future for children

The Include Summit is the UK's largest conference focussed on equality, diversity and inclusion in sport, this year held in Manchester in early May. Access Sport was there to contribute as experts on panels and also to contribute to the vital conversations around inclusion in sport. In attendance was Katherine who is a volunteer on the Access Sport Youth Board, Lizzie Edgecombe, Senior Development Manager and Hayley Barton, Delivery Director.

The mission of the Include Summit is to get 1 million underprivileged and underrepresented young people taking part in sport. Topics included neurodiversity in sport, using sport to enhance and support communities, women in sport, inclusive cultures and many more.

Katherine said "I got the opportunity to attend the Include Summit with Access Sport – it was a really interesting few days which opened my eyes to lots of different issues and perspectives currently facing the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) sector.

I think the main benefit for myself from attending the summit is coming away with a better idea of what the key issues are currently facing EDI in sport and where we need to go next to tackle these.

My key learnings from the summit include awareness of some of the amazing work people are doing across the industry to tackle issues they have faced in their own experiences with sport. I also found conversations around the power of sport to support and empower vulnerable young people particularly insightful, as well as the extent of the underrepresentation of neurodiversity in sport. The summit also highlighted that EDI is not a sport-specific issue – the challenges are systemic across all sports and society in general, and so require systemic solutions.

I will use these learnings, both in my role on the Youth Board and in my work as a consultant, to make sure I am considering EDI in a range of capacities rather than just those I am most familiar with, and to ensure that I play my part by speaking up to highlight challenges to inclusion when necessary, to create the opportunity for open conversation and increased awareness."

Lizzie Edgecombe was part of a panel discussing neurodiversity inclusion in sport using insights from her experience of working across a range of sports and disabilities in Bristol. Lizzie is leading Access Sport’s work in this area including the development of a new neurodiversity inclusion training.

Hayley Barton spoke as part of a panel on using sport to enhance and support communities. Hayley has a wide range of inclusion expertise and she commented "The Include Summit is an important event in the calendar for organisations working in sport. Supporting communities is critical to our work and I was able to bring Access Sport’s perspective to these discussions. We have commissioned a research project with Bath University to look at how our work impacts building community engagement and sense of belonging, we look forward to sharing these results later in 2023. At Access Sport we know sport has the power to bring individuals together from diverse backgrounds, which can allow us to promote long-term social change and create a more equitable future for children.’

For more information about Access Sport's inclusion work please contact us.
[email protected]