After a turbulent year, community sport has offered many of us a sense of comfort and a renewed feeling of community spirit. This is why Ring and UK charity, Made By Sport, are proud to announce a new initiative to support families and youth across the UK by helping to create stronger spaces for communities. This program will support Made By Sport’s ongoing mission to champion sports-led solutions for communities, raise awareness of sport for social change, and fund initiatives to build stronger community spaces.
Changing Lives Through The Power of Sport
Made By Sport is a charity raising awareness and funding for grassroots sports clubs and organisations that work with young people across the UK. Launched in 2019, it aims to champion the power of sport to tackle social issues and unlock new sources of funding for grassroots organisations, using sport to try to change people’s lives and help communities thrive.
New research from Ring* shows just how important sport is to British communities, with three quarters (75%) of Brits surveyed believing that sport builds community spirit. According to those surveyed, helping maintain physical and mental wellbeing (45%), creating new connections (36%), placing an importance on teamwork (30%), breaking barriers within the community and developing strong relationships (both 28%), were the main ways in which they felt sport helped form tighter-knit communities.
Made By Sport supports organisations across the UK to raise awareness of the power of sport to change lives, and to raise funds for the organisations shaping a stronger future for young people and encouraging them to take an active role in their communities. When it comes to community sport, almost a third of Brits (30%) agree that sport teams/initiatives play a big role in their community, with 24% saying they enjoy meeting new people through community sport. As lockdown measures ease across Britain, participation in local programs is set to be on the rise, with a fifth of Brits (19%) planning to join a community sports team or program and four in ten (41%) of parents looking to enrol their children into a community initiative.
Coming Together to Support Local Communities
At Ring, our mission has always been about making neighbourhoods safer, which is why we’re humbled to collaborate with Made By Sport to help build safer, stronger communities. Made By Sport champions the power of sport to tackle social issues and unlock new sources of funding for grassroots organisations, using sport to try to change people’s lives and help communities thrive. Our community-driven fund will support Made by Sport’s initiatives and programs, allowing them to extend their impact to local spaces that provide invaluable contributions to community safety.
Sophie Mason, CEO of Made By Sport says: “We started Made By Sport with the mission to champion the power of sport to change lives, and to raise vital funds for community-driven organisations that help to transform the lives of young people across the country. We are passionate about what sport does, not just what it is.
"Sport is a crucial part of growing up, teaching us life lessons, and acting as a solution, and even life saver, for many young people. We're excited to work with Ring, a company that shares in our mission and with their support, we are eager to further raise awareness of the impact of sport, and to help create, support, and shine a light on, the local spaces that provide invaluable contributions to community safety.”
*Research commissioned by Ring and conducted by Opinium Research, who surveyed 2,000 nationally representative UK adults (18+) between 22-25 October 2021.