Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
Access Sport
Contact us Donate
  • Twitter
Menu
  • About Us
    • The Team
      • Trustees
      • Staff
      • Ambassadors
      • Patrons
      • Partners
        • Corporate Partners
        • Video Game Partners
      • Access Sport Youth Board
    • Our Movement
    • Our Finances
    • Our Policies
    • Join the team
  • WHAT WE DO
    • Overview
    • Our programmes
    • Our Projects
    • Our Impact
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Fundraise
    • Streaming For Sport
    • The Dan Smith Fund
    • An Evening with Access Sport
    • Partner Us
    • Patrons Club
  • AIPFF
  • Events
    • Participant Events
    • Annual dinner
    • Challenge Access Sport
    • Ultra Challenges 2022
    • Set up your own event
  • Latest
    • Latest News
    • In The Media
    • AIPFF Blog
  • Stay In Work Out
    • Club Resources
    • The Lockdown Bike Hub
    • Inclusive Home Activities
  • Admin
    • Log in
    • Contact Us
    • Donate
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Overview

Overview

Access Sport is a charity meeting the urgent need to improve children and young people’s health and wellbeing, working solely with young people in deprived communities and with a strong emphasis on young disabled people. 


We are working to combat shocking levels of exclusion, hardship and poor health faced by millions in the UK today. For example:
 

  • Health – the UK has the highest level of childhood obesity in Europe with one in five children obese by the time they leave primary school[i]. Just 15% of girls aged 11-15 and 22% of boys achieve the government recommended guidelines of an hour of moderate exercise each day[ii].

  • Exclusion – disabled people are four times more likely to be out of work than non-disabled people[iii] and only 18% of disabled people regularly engage in sport despite 70% wanting to[iv]. A 2017 UN inquiry concluded that the UK was not ensuring the UN Convention on Disabled People’s Rights.

  • Hardship – more than half of all children in the UK’s poorest areas are now growing up in poverty[v] and poverty is also experienced by nearly half of all families in which there is a disabled person[vi]


Sport is an incredibly powerful way to combat these issues and to transform the lives not only of deprived young people but also their families and surrounding communities. And yet, despite this, our most deprived communities are very often those most lacking in accessible sporting facilities.



We believe every child should have access to the developmental and health benefits of sport and every community should have a thriving, inclusive and sustainable sporting offer.


To achieve this:

We develop community sports clubs, equipping local people to provide transformational development opportunities for children and young people, irrespective of their background or ability.

We build, equip and up-skill local sports clubs and turn them into thriving local facilities, connected into other local partners such as schools, disabled people’s organisations and other local charities – all working together to deliver real change and opportunity for local young people.

We train and support volunteer sports coaches and club leaders in a range of vital skills such as establishing new sessions to attract more deprived and disabled young people, building personal development pathways for participants towards education or employment and building the financial sustainability of the club so it can grow and serve more local young people for years to come. 

We are the only charity in the UK today focussed entirely on doing this and we have developed a unique model that is measurable, cost-effective and replicable. This club development model has been recognised with a number of awards, including most recently Best Sports Charity, Community or CSR initiative at the 2017 Sports Business Awards.




During the 2019/20 year we gave 7,043 disadvantaged and disabled young people access to the health, wellbeing and developmental benefits of community sport. 


We achieved this impact on young people through capacity building 135 community sports clubs situated mainly in the most deprived communities of London, Manchester, Bristol and Oxford. 

In the process we trained 342 skilled local coaches and volunteers; and through upskilling 302 young people on personal development courses we supported them to contribute positively in their communities whilst at the same time improving their life and employability prospects. 

Impact studies conducted with our university partners showed that 84% of our beneficiaries parents reported that their child's wellbeing has improved, 82% of participants say they now know more about being healthy and active, 83% of young people say that they want to do more sport or activity than before and 76% ride a bike more than they did before.

29% of our beneficiaries were disabled young people, 36% were seriously inactive (doing less than 30 minutes of physical exercise per week), 41% were girls and young women, and 44% were from Ethnically Diverse Communities.

Our work continues to win praise from a range of stakeholders including parents, police, teachers, youth workers and disability organisations.


We are a multi-sport charity so we will work with any club in any sport to provide a compelling and fresh sporting opportunity to local young people in that particular community. This also gives us insight into how some activities can be built into national frameworks, such as our growing Making Trax Cycling Programme (formerly known as the BMX Legacy Programme) and our Ignite disability inclusion work and its key projects such as Flyerz Hockey.

 

If you could pack exercise into a magic pill, it would be a pharmaceutical blockbuster
- Simon Stevens, chief executive, NHS England



[i] NHS data

[ii] International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health 2016

[iii] Joseph Rowntree Foundation

[iv] Active People Survey 2016

[v] End Child Poverty coalition 2018

[vi] Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2017

Published: 21st August, 2018

Updated: 4th February, 2021

Author: Access Sport

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Latest

  • Making Trax Cycling Inclusion Programme

    Making Trax Cycling Inclusion Programme

  • Lewisham Inclusive Sports Festival

    Lewisham Inclusive Sports Festival

    Access Sport in partnership with Lewisham Council and Southeast London Tennis hosted an inclusive sports festival in Lewisham for D/deaf and disabled children and young people and their families.

  • NEW BIKE TRACK GETS OLYMPIC SEAL OF APPROVAL

    NEW BIKE TRACK GETS OLYMPIC SEAL OF APPROVAL

    Bristol Live joined the crowd of funders and supporters at the launch of our latest bike track to see BMX Olympian and Access Sport ambassador Declan Brooks test the pump track and jump track alongside local school children.

  • In Memory of James

    In Memory of James

    James had an amazing way with children and inspired hundreds of them with his passion for sport and the positive impact it had on young people’s lives. Access Sport is working with James's mother to help continue to achieve this and bring the benefits of sport to more young people in the Bristol area. Donations made here will be split between Access Sport and the MS Society.

Most read

  • JOIN THE TEAM

    JOIN THE TEAM

    We're always on the lookout for enthusiastic new people! Take a look at our current vacancies and placement opportunities...

  • Flyerz Hockey

    Flyerz Hockey

    A national movement to make hockey more disability inclusive.

  • Overview

    Overview

  • Disability Inclusion

    Disability Inclusion

    Find out more about our award-winning disability inclusion programme.

  • BMXercise

    BMXercise

    BMXercise is fun, friendly and fitness-based BMXing for women. Sessions run all of the country and are a great way to gain confidence on a bike, meet new people and pick up new skills.

  • 'A Question of Access Sport'

    'A Question of Access Sport'

    A Question of Access Sport is our charity’s flagship event, bringing together 400 supporters, partners and guests for an amazing evening of inclusive sport. The dinner includes a much-loved quiz and the chance to have-a-go at some of our disability-inclusive sports, all while raising funds for our vital work making sport more accessible to those who need it most. We are now taking bookings for our next event on 27th March 2019 and you can download the brochure and booking form here:

  • Social Inclusion

    Social Inclusion

    Find out how we are using sport as a tool to tackle social exclusion where the need is greatest.

  • Our Movement

    Our Movement

  • Mark Hardie

    CEO Emeritus

  • Julian Barrell

    Fundraising Manager - Video Games Partnerships

Tag cloud

Bristol community disabiity sport disability Disability Inclusion event festival Fundraise Health and Wellbeing inclusion inclusive sport multi-sport
Multi-Sport, Health & Wellbeing Festival 2019

Multi-Sport, Health & Wellbeing Festival 2019

Read about our big community event in Bristol on the 8th August 2019. Read more

Published: 29th August, 2019

Updated: 17th March, 2022

Author: Lizzie Edgecombe

Inclusive Home Activities

Inclusive Home Activities

We have compiled a list of activities and resources that we think you’ll enjoy and will suit all abilities. Read more

Published: 30th March, 2020

Updated: 24th September, 2020

Author: Lizzie Edgecombe

Latest tweet

  • @CycleFife Hi @CycleFife, thanks for getting in touch. The team will give you a call today.

    29thJune, 2022 @AccessSport
  • WOW! What a privilege to bring together all of these amazing clubs and organisations for the upcoming disability-in… https://t.co/I3POisBh6F

    27thJune, 2022 @AccessSport
  • RT @LBofBromley: The bike track at Hoblingwell Wood, the Bromley Bike Hub, has now been opened by @MayorofBromley0, in partnership w… https://t.co/WpTiwISOaq

    27thJune, 2022 @AccessSport

Sign up for our newsletter

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter your email address Please enter a valid email address (e.g. [email protected])

  • Contact us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

© 2016 Access Sport CIO | All rights reserved | Registered charity no 1156819.