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Olympians and Paralympians back Birmingham’s groundbreaking watersports festival

The ‘Into the Green and Blue: Watersports Festival’ gave more than 1,000 young people from some of Birmingham’s most underserved communities the chance to experience a range of watersports for free. Held at the Andrew Simpson Centre and across eight paddle sports hubs along Birmingham’s canal network, participants enjoyed activities such as Bell Boating, Kayaking, Sailing, Power Boating, and Rowing.

Organised by StreetGames in partnership with Paddle UK, British Rowing, and Andrew Simpson Sailing, the festival is part of the ongoing Birmingham Community Paddle Sports Project, which aims to increase access to watersports. As the official charity partner of Team GB, StreetGames welcomed athletes Emma Wiggs, Esme Booth, and Rob Oliver through the Team GB ChangeMaker campaign, which seeks to remove barriers in sport and inspire the next generation of athletes.

Since its inception in 2022, the Birmingham Community Paddle Sport Project, supported by StreetGames in partnership with Olympic canoeist Andy Train, Paddle UK and the Canal & River Trust, has aimed to engage Birmingham’s most underserved communities by increasing access and promoting participation in paddle sport across city’s canal network. 

This festival is an example of what can be achieved through partnership working in the city and will aim to create further opportunities for year-round sporting activity to be available to children and young people across the city in the future. 

Ray Vince, Area Lead, StreetGames said: “StreetGames exists to bridge the sporting inequality gap for young people from low-income, underserved communities. Working with our partners, we deliver Doorstep Sport to bridge the inequality gap and offer sport and physical activity in a way that meets the needs and motivations of the people we reach. I think we have started to show this weekend how we can be even more effective by working together in a multi-watersport approach.

“This event is a critical step in our mission to establish year-round, multisport opportunities in underserved communities, opening pathways for young people to grow into volunteers and community leaders. It’s a reminder to mainstream sports providers of the importance of adapting their offer to suit all young people.”

Triple Paralympic Gold Medallist, Emma Wiggs MBE reflected on her visit to the paddle sports hub in Castle Vale: “I wanted to congratulate all those involved on a fantastic weekend of paddling and water activity! I absolutely loved meeting everyone and seeing how the organisations’ passion and energy inspired the young people to get on the water…these efforts have developed new experiences and new fans of the outdoors and water, so thank you.”
 

Esme Booth, British Rowing Olympic Silver medallist said: “I feel truly inspired by all the work everyone is doing to get people out on the water and would love to see if we can make rowing part of this, making it available to the communities in Birmingham as a sustainable project that is open to a diverse group of people of all abilities and backgrounds.”

Retired Olympian Andy Train, who has been the driving force behind The Birmingham Community Paddle Sport Project, said: “It has been a great festival! Our partnership with StreetGames, who also support our hubs year-round, has meant we were able to attract a further 500 families this weekend. Our community paddle sport hubs are based on the doorstep of the most underserved communities. The canal network in Birmingham reaches into everyone. In this way have been able to give young people and families a real opportunity to get into water sport and if they want, stay with it.”

Further feedback from partners involved has been overwhelmingly positive:

“This event has been a great opportunity to showcase different organisations working in partnership to reach into the underserved communities giving young people from low-income families the chance to access water sports. We are especially grateful to the role that StreetGames has played in enabling engagement through their network of locally trusted organisations and in bringing us all together to make this happen very effectively. We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration with StreetGames and to expanding this way of working not just in Birmingham but also across England.” – Greg Van Heerden, Recreational Programmes Lead (Paddle UK). 

“Truly inspirational! I can’t really say more than that. Other than, I am very excited for the possibilities of what’s next.” – Rebecca Gibson, Love Rowing.  

“It was brilliant to hear The Andrew Simpson Centre were able to support 150 individuals getting out on the water. Given the large initial expressions of interest, we, of course, would be happy to work with all to offer further opportunities to access watersports.” – Richard Percy (CEO Andrew Simpson Foundation) 

 “I’m delighted to hear of the event’s success last weekend; a great testament to the creativity, vision and dedication of the partnerships that has been brought together.” – Caroline Slocock, ASF Fundraising Manager.  

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