Yorkshire Sport Foundation is a National Lottery funded charity, supporting organisations across the nine districts of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
“We believe in the power of movement, physical activity and sport to change people’s lives, bring us together and tackle inequality.”
Our vision is to create a vibrant, healthy and prosperous Yorkshire through everyone moving more. To do this we will connect, influence and support the work of local, regional and national organisations.
Around 70% of our resources are focussed on 36 of our low-income communities identified for further support. More intensive work has continued in places like Burngreave where we are getting an insight into how a genuine “asset-based community development” approach can work.
Read our strategy here: Our strategy, 2022 and beyond.
Find out more and read our: Annual Highlights 2022-2023
Connect – bringing people, ideas, agendas, projects and expertise together.
We recognise there are thousands of people, groups and organisations across South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire who can make a difference in people’s lives through movement, physical activity and sport.We are proud to be part of this big picture – a movement building across our local places – and we continue to bring people together to unite our collective purpose.
Influence – shifting thinking, policy and decision making.
We know we need to influence the many to realise our vision – and being influential requires building trusting relationships, a common purpose and shared values.We recognise the strong foundation we have built to do this so we can now be bold where required, listen when needed, step-aside when appropriate and take a leading role in affecting change.This means making movement, physical activity and sport everyone’s business.
Support – providing backing, funding, guidance and resources to and on behalf of our part
We acknowledge we are uniquely and strongly placed to kick start change. Our charitable status, Sport England National Lottery funding and membership of the Active Partnership network enables us to invest through our partners and local communities as and where needed.This will look different to different partners in different places and will shift as local conditions and outcomes continue to evolve and transform
Read more about Who we are
We work with partners to deliver Sport England‘s 2021-2031strategy Uniting the Movement
Launched in 2021, the strategy is a10-year vision to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity.
The strategy will help deliver against the five health, social and economic outcomes set out in the Government’s Sporting Future strategy.
- Physical wellbeing –The physical benefits of sport and physical activity are well documented. Being active can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 30-40% and can reduce the risk of a range of medical conditions, including cancer, dementia, strokes, heart disease and depression, but only 56% of adults are physically active for the 150 minutes each week which are part of recommendations by the UK’s CMOs. The figures are lower still for children. Physical inactivity costs the UK an estimated £7.4bn each year.
- Mental wellbeing – Sport and physivcal activity is, for many people, a hugely enjoyable experience and can reduce stress and anxiety.Mastering new skills can increase confidence and self-esteem. Volunteering to help other people at local sporting events can be very satisfying. Research has shown that exercise can be as effective as anti-depressants for those with mild clinical depression. The positive effects on mental wellbeing from meeting the CMO guidelines are every bit as important as the physical benefits.
- Individual development –We know how powerfully sport and physical activity can affect an individual’s development. It improves educational behaviour and attainment, through greater self-esteem and confidence and direct cognitive benefits. This can also have a positive impact on the employment opportunities and have a positive role in tackling the problems of those who are not in employment, education or training.
- Social and community development -As well as developing individuals, sport and physical activity can help build stronger communities by bringing people together, often from different backgrounds, to make them feel better about where they live, improve community links and cohesion and build social capital. We know that people who volunteer in sport, for example, are more likely to feel they belong in their area and people who take part in sport are likely to enjoy stronger social links with other people.
- Economic development -Much of the £39bn that sport and physical activity contributes to the UK’s GDP comes from grassroots activity, the millions of people who buy trainers, bikes, gym memberships or pay match fees. The government’s investment of £10m in the Tour de France Grand Départ in 2014 helped unlock a £125m contribution to GDP. The economic impact of sport, and physical activity, how it creates jobs, promotes growth and drives exports is a fundamental part of our strategy.