In London, as around the world, people are using sport to strengthen and connect communities. In March 2018 the Mayor of London launched a programme called Sport Unites, which sits within his wider strategy for sport and physical activity in London, Sport for All of Us. Sport Unites invests in and supports organisations so that they can harness the power of sport – not only to improve the physical and mental health of Londoners, but al...

Ava, Malaika and Amira had always liked sport but participated only in a limited capacity until the chance came almost two years ago to create ‘Muscles and Mascara’, an after-school sports club for girls. That has since expanded in activities and popularity to the point where, last Friday, they launched their own community-wide ‘Newham Unity’ netball club for girls aged between 13 and 16. They embody the aims of The Telegraph's Girls, I...

Women in Sport in partnership with the Fatherhood Institute, Fulham Football club and the EFL Trust is celebrating after being awarded £118,301 of National Lottery funding from Sport England to help low income families in London get active with their children over the next year. The programme will replicate a programme which was designed by the University of Newcastle, Australia. It will specifically target dads and daughters in the UK....

This Girl Can has launched a new phase of its award-winning campaign that's working to drive down the gender gap in sport. Fit Got Real aims to build on the campaign’s achievements so far, as well as specifically reaching out to women of backgrounds and ethnicities who feel left behind by traditional exercise. Our research shows that women in lower paid and routine jobs are twice as likely to be inactive as those in senior managerial ro...

Girls Active is an award-winning programme developed by children’s charity the Youth Sport Trust and delivered in partnership with Women in Sport. Thanks to continued funding from the Department for Communities through Sport Northern Ireland as part of the ‘Active Fit and Sporty’ project, the Girls Active programme has continued to expand each year with up to 30 schools now receiving support from the Youth Sport Trust through Girls Acti...

Data released by children’s charity the Youth Sport Trust (YST) shows a confidence crisis in girls is stopping them from getting active from as young as the age of seven. The research involved 5,454 boys and girls aged 7 to 11-years-old across England. It showed that even in primary school, almost twice as many girls as boys report that a lack of confidence stops them being active in school. The YST survey aims to identify the barriers ...

Primary schools in England are set to receive extra support and improved guidance to help make sure all children can swim confidently and know how to stay safe in and around water. Working in partnership with Swim England, the Department for Education and Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport have announced extra help for schools to make sure every child knows how to swim and be safe in and around water by the end of primary s...

This research was commissioned by London Sport and conducted by HPI Proactive to better understand the current and future opportunities associated with London Sport’s commitment to supporting a bigger and better workforce to support physical activity and sport in London. Undertaken in 2016, the research findings were carried out to address the following objectives to inform and develop the creation of Building a Workforce for the Future...

The latest Sport England Active Lives release for November 2016 to 2017 has been used to create physical activity profiles for each London Borough. Physical activity participation is broken down by gender, age, disability and socio-economic status. Sport England’s Active Lives survey represents a new way of measuring the number of people taking part in physical activity and sport. Results can be used measure outcomes against Sport En...

An evidence review commissioned by Public Health England and the Centre for Ageing Better has found that muscle and bone strengthening and balance activities continue to have great health benefits for all adults, including older adults aged 65 years and over.  In older adults, poor muscle strength increases the risk of a fall by 76% and those who have already had a fall are three times more likely to fall again. Strengthening and ba...