What is StreetGames?

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

StreetGames is a network of projects that deliver sport on the doorstep in disadvantaged areas. The projects are locally run, locally funded and locally controlled. The StreetGames national team provides an innovative menu of activities and resources that imporve the quality of local delivery. The national team also undertake lobbying and advocacy work on behalf of doorstep sport.

StreetGames is a partner to Sport England - engaged in order to support the governing bodies of sport to improve the growth of sporting provision in diasadvantaged areas.

History

The thinking behind StreetGames came from a highly successful and innovative football tournament organised in April 2003 by The Football Association, the Government Office for the North West and the regional New Deal for Communities. The idea was to run a sporting event for young people in renewal areas, bringing together the worlds of sport and renewal. It was taken up in different ways in London and in the North East. Since then StreetGames has spread from Northumberland to Cornwall and across from Liverpool to Hull.

StreetGames promotes DOORSTEP SPORT - sport delivered close to the home in disadvantaged communities at the right time, the right place, the right price and in the right style to engage young people.

Delivering increased participation

Since its launch in 2007, StreetGames has developed a network of over 120 local projects which provide regular doorstep sports sessions within disadvantaged communities:

• Attracting over 137,000 participants
• Generating over 1.4 million attendances. 

StreetGames' latest monitoring figures show that 36% of participants are females, 22% are from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups, 85% are from deprived areas and 12% are aged 16+ years.

StreetGames Events, Festivals and Tournaments

In addition, a key part of StreetGames’ work is its local, regional and national events programme. Since 2007, StreetGames has organised and run over 200 events, festivals and tournaments which have attracted more than 36,000 participants from disadvantaged communities. 

The events not only give young people the opportunity to experience competitive sport, but also provide them with the opportunity to represent their area, engendering a sense of belonging and civic pride.

StreetGames improving local communities

StreetGames is not just about developing sport, it also recognises the important role that doorstep sport can play in improving local communities and the lives of those people living within them.  As such, StreetGames uses sport to:

• Increase social action and volunteering
• Develop stronger and safer communities
• Improve health and well-being.

Social action and volunteering

Increasing social action, volunteering and developing community capacity is vitally important to StreetGames. Its recognises the vital role of volunteering by encouraging young people from disadvantaged areas to become involved in sports volunteering. Through this they can significantly improve their life chances by obtaining leadership and life management skills, as well as providing a route to recognised qualifications. 

The Co-operative StreetGames Young Volunteer programme was created in 2007. The programme helps 16-25 year-olds gain sports qualifications and community leadership skills whilst volunteering, and has helped over 3,700 volunteers gain more than 4,875 qualifications since its formation.

To date the 8,000plus coaches and volunteers that have been recruited into StreetGames sessions have achieved over 4,800 new qualifications.

Stronger and safer communities

StreetGames uses sport to develop stronger and safer communities by providing positive activities for children and young people within disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Data collected locally demonstrates the important contribution being made by projects – for example:

• A StreetGames summer activity programme held in Bucknall, Stoke-on-Trent, helped in a 45% reduction in anti-social behaviour during the 2009 summer holidays
• The Bristol StreetGames Bike Project had an extremely positive effect on a number of trouble hotspots in the area. Data provided by Network Rail highlighted a 42% reduction in trespasses and a 50% reduction in incidents of vandalism compared to the previous year during the period of the Bike Project.

Improving health and wellbeing

StreetGames projects provide an effective means of improving health and wellbeing, and tackle health inequalities within disadvantaged areas by:

• Encouraging more young people to get involved in sport and physical activity
• Keeping them coming back
• Supporting them on a pathway to sustained behaviour change. 

In addition, to encourage more young people to become physically active, many projects integrate health advice and information within the activity sessions. Project coaches and volunteers pass on vital information to young people in an informal manner - found to be an effective method - as they are seen as role models or ‘one of us’ within the local community.

The diagram below illustrates how the StreetGames approach links with the behaviour change cycle:

The StreetGames network does not operate a ‘one size fits all’ approach to delivery. All projects are locally funded, locally controlled and locally managed – thus ensuring that each project meets local needs and is delivered efficiently.