Three years of Uniting the Movement

The video consists of a series of cuts of a range of people participating in a different sports and physical activities by themselves or with other people or teams. It focusses on how being active has helped them feel better physically and mentally and the role Sport England’s long term strategy - Uniting  the Movement, now on its third year – in supporting them.

It is set to a series of tunes ranging from softer to more up-beat and it’s narrated both of and on the camera by Chris Boardman, a former gold-medallist cyclist and the current Chair of Sport England,  plus representatives of each of the clubs and sport and physical activity organisations supported by us – Trapped in Zone One in London, Projekt MCR in Manchester, Greenbank Power Hockey Hub on Merseyside and Guardian Ballers in Coventry.

A lively tune introduces the video.

A young white woman does skateboard figures on a skatepark. A young white man on a green wheelchair looks at the camera. A young black woman making a basketball bounce while she walks, appears and an Asian woman holds her hands together while she does fitness exercises.

The same young woman that opened the video jumps with her skateboard, making it turn in the air. The black young woman re-appears fastening her trainers’ laces in slow motion.  

First off the screen and then on screen in the middle of an urban park with a building and a tree with no leaves behind him, we hear a man’s voice talking. When he’s on screen, we can see his name, role and organisation on the screen too. He’s Chris Boardman, Chairman, Sport England.

The skating girl reappears going up and down a skateboard ramp on her board, although we can only see her from her legs down. The young man on the green wheelchair turns around. We don’t see him at first, only the chair pushing a bright orange ball. An old Asian woman wearing a veil is exercising by pulling a rope up with her hands in slow motion. The young woman jumps as she throws the basketball in slow motion while playing on a yard. A close up of her hands as she throws the ball appears on the screen in slow motion.

Chris comes back on screen with a wooden building as his background.  This is followed by images of two black girls playing basketball indoors, a young Asian woman and an older one with a veil do gentle exercises with her arms on an indoors gym in slow motion.

Chris talks through it all.

He says: 

We know a more active nation is one with better physical and mental health, which would lead to a stronger economy, more connected communities and other good stuff. Sadly, the people with the most to gain from being active have had the least opportunity to take part and that was before a pandemic which made long-standing inequalities even worse. So, Uniting the Movement is our long-term strategy to transform communities and give everyone a chance to live active lives.

The number of people who take part in sport or physical activity varies with different ethnic groups.  We know, for example,  that Black and Asian people  are less likely to be physically active than White people. And that’s why we’re working with organisations embedded in communities who know what they need at a local level.   

One of those groups is Trapped in Zone One.  Using our Together Fund they’ve helped women living, working and studying in Tower Hamlets, London to get active. 

We now see a young woman leading the fitness class and the back of the Asian old woman wearing a veil.

A new man’s voice over is heard while the image changes to the young Asian women kneeling in front of her floor matt and some exercising ropes.

A man appears on the screen with is name and organisation written on the screen: Bablu Miah, Trapped in Zone One.

He says:

We formed Trapped in Zone One as an initiative to bring community together.  

A young black woman follows with her name and organisation written on the screen -  Bobbi-Jo Allen, Trapped in Zone One.

She talks while the young Asian woman spreads her exercise matt on the gym’s floor and next to her there are other women and then she appears stretching her arms with exercise ropes.

Bobbi-Jo says: 

So, for example, a lot of exercise classes happen in gyms and leisure centres that don’t necessarily have covers for women who, for example,  if you have a hijabi lady, she may not want to be seen by other members of the public. So we absolutely adored that idea and we asked him to come to our space. And yeah, that’s where is started. 

The young Asian woman we’ve seen exercising until now appears on the screen talking.

While she talks off and on screen, we see an indoors fitness session, led by a young white woman and followed by a woman with a veil an d a young Asian woman.

The young Asian lady says: 

I always enjoy workout sessions and when I saw all the women coming together even the old ages, people who haven’t done  a workout for a long time, they were motivated to come forward and try it out.

We go back to the fitness indoor session. 

The old Asian woman speaks on screen and also off screen while we see images of her exercising in slow motion during a class led by a female coach.

She speaks in her own language, but the subtitles on screen appear translated into English.

She says: 

Here the teacher is a lady, whatever I want can be born, we can do after dressing like that. I therefore think that exercising here is very important especially for women to keep fit and healthy.

Chris Boardman’s voice over is heard and then he appears on the screen in a park with some benches and leafy trees behind him. Then a young woman helps strap a young man to his wheelchair followed by more young men on wheelchairs sliding around on their chairs on an indoors sport centre.

Chris says:

People with a disability or long-term health condition are also less likely to be active and that’s not fair. So, together with our partners, we intend to do something about it. A case in point is Greenbank Power Hockey Hub on Merseyside, which with Sport England funding gives disabled people an opportunity to play a fast contact sport.

The young man on the green wheelchair we saw, appears on the screen and with it his name and organisation written on the screen: Liam Ashton, Greenbank Power Hockey.

He talks while on and off the screen and we see him first sitting on his wheelchair and then on his wheelchair advancing behind a group of parked chairs and close ups of them.

He says:

I started playing hockey when I was eight, son I’ve loved it ever since.  Before I came to Power Hockey I didn’t even really think of doing any sport or any exercise or anything, but it’s just normal for me now, so… 

Music continues on the background and we young men and boys playing power hockey on their wheelchairs and a man, who’s a club member helping a boy on to his chair.

Liam says:

Sport England’s involvement in Power Hockey’s been massive. We wouldn’t be where we were today without them. And without them we wouldn’t have done it so,  they are massive. It’s improved my confidence by being part of a team, you have to communicate in the game. You have to talk to people, you have to be loud, you have to get involved. There needs to be more teams, more chairs, more players. The funding really helps with that, so… 

Images of Liam turning around on his wheelchair are followed by Chris walking on the park.

Chris then appears sitting on a picnic table.

He says:

We know that women are less likely to be physically active than men for lots of different reasons. Fear of judgement, a lack of confidence or simply not having enough time. We’re determined to eradicate the activity gender gap, which is why alongside our This Girl Can campaign, we’ve invested in hundreds of organisations like Projekt MCR in Manchester. 

A container with yellow letters saying Projekt Skatepark & Café and Manchester appears on the screen.

We hear a young woman’s voice over and then we see her on the screen we see, her name and organisation: Cara Looij, Projekts MCR.

She says:

I did do quite a lot of sport growing up. When I was ten, there was a boy in mi class that fancied me and got me a skateboard for Valentine’s Day. And I was like: “Mum, I want to learn how to skateboard.” 

Cara appears on the skatepark. She’s laughing, placing a skateboard along others on a storage wall, and skating on the skatepark trying to do pirouettes with her skateboard and being taught and reassured by another young woman.

On and off screen she says:  

I think I’d been thinking about coming to Girls’ Night here on a Thursday for a while, but I felt a little bit like, oh I’m not good enough to like come to the Girls’ Night  because I can’t do this or that.

When I started getting coached, I was like, Oh, I can do so much more than I thought I could, because actually I didn’t know what the next step was, but someone’s just pointed it out for me. Now when there’s a change or something new in my life, I’m like: “Well, I learnt how to skateboard, so I can do anything.” 

Chris Boardman appears again with the park behind him. He talks and images appear of a young black woman and her team during a basketball training session indoors.

On and off the screen he says:

Age is also a major factor that determines how likely we are to be physically active. Sadly, there’s nearly half a million fewer active young people than there were before the pandemic. Guardian Ballers in Coventry has empowered young people to reach their potential through basketball. 

Images show the black girl who’s appeared before in the video as she walks through a corridor and then during a basketball training session.

Her voice over says:

I feel like for me, basketball acts as a distraction in life. 

She then appears on screen, talking to the camera sitting on a chair in the indoors sports centre where she plays. Her name and her team’s sport appear on written on the  screen too: Helena, Guardian Ballers. 

She talks and while she does that, images of her and her team mates appear on the screen, all wearing the team’s purple shirt, playing, talking to each other and smiling. The team is made of boys and girls.

She says: 

Well, the wellbeing side of Guardian Ballers, it helps people understand their emotions and helps bring peace on and off the court, whether it’s on the court, between others and outside the court in the real world. 

I feel like Guardian Ballers has impacted me so much, which I’m grateful for, because I’ve met so many people that I’m friends with today and, without them, I would have not been in the place where I am today, which has had a great impact on me and I will never forget that. 

Images of her team and trainers holding basketballs or playing during a training session appears, plus images of the team crest and her being in front of the camera too.

Helena voice over continues.

She says:

If I were to speak to a young person like me, I’d probably say: “surround yourself with the right people, people that would encourage you and motivate you to do your best.” Ones that will teach you resilience because those are the people that impacted my life and it’d probably do the same for you. I feel like I’ve accomplished something in life. Just doing something I love, it makes a difference and it just makes me feel happy. Like I can’t stop smiling so… 

Chris Boardman’s comes back to the screen. But while he talks we saw images of Cara skating at the Projekt MCR skatepark in Manchester; Liam, from the Greenbank Power Hockey Hub on Merseyside, spinning around on his wheelchair on the indoors court; the old Asian lady exercising while wearing a veil and with other women in Trapped in Zone One, in London and Helena and the Guardian Ballers in Coventry playing basketball and listening to their coach.

He says:

These four projects are just some examples of the thousands of clubs and organisations all over England who are making a difference. By listening  to groups who are facing the greatest challenges and working with our partners we can break down the barriers and tackle the inequalities that stop people from taking part and being active. 

Finally, Chris is back on the screen, a playground by the park can be seen on the background.

He says:

Instead of telling them what do you, we’re asking them what they need. By doing that, we’re Uniting the Movement. 

The screen turns blue, the white Sport England logo comes up and at the bottom of the screen we see #UnitingTheMovement and after a couple of seconds, the music fades out.

The video consists of a series of different cuts showing Sport England’s CEO, Tim Hollingsworth. He’s seating on a chair in a room indoors looking straight at the camera and talking about Uniting the Movement – our long-term strategy, it’s origin and mission.

It is set to a lively tune that sounds throughout.

A lively tune introduces the scene.

A man is talking seating on a chair indoors with his role, name and organisation written on the screen: Tim Hollingstworth, CEO, Sport England.

He says:

We put tacking inequality at the centre of our work, indeed it’s the stated mission of Uniting the Movement, because we know right now it’s not a level playing field.

Whether you are playing sport or being active in your community is not just a product of your own motivation or enthusiasm.

It can also be impacted by your gender, by your race or ethnicity, by whether or not you’re disabled, and perhaps more than anything, by your social economic circumstances.

So it’s our job as Sport England but it’s our job collectively to recognise that tackling those inequalities is where we must give our focus.

We realised in compiling Uniting the Movement, in fact in consulting on it,    

that really we needed to work very differently if we were going to actually have success in creating long-term, systemic change and creating the opportunities for everybody

to be active, regardless of their circumstances, or indeed where they live.

Of course everything happens in a place, so understanding that place, understanding the communities there, understanding the barriers and the challenges that people face, is critical.

Deep down we know that if we work more collaboratively and more effectively together, in particular we work with those system partners, the 130 or so organisations, who we see as being foundational to the

Sport and physical activity sector, the actually we can create the sort of collaborative change that we need and, ultimately, that’s a much more effective use, not just of public money,

but also of the resources that we have an the capacity that we have as a sector to make a difference.

So much has changed in the past three years, but we’ve all got that sense together now that we know what the challenges are

and we know increasingly how we can address them, solve them, and in doing so, create opportunities that frankly previously would never have been there.

The greater focus we’ve given into working in a place, thinking about how people can access our money,

thinking about what it is that we can do with that, that we can be different and doing all of that against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge challenges that that threw up to both infrastructure,

ways of working but also people’s health and wellbeing and the resources that underpin it all.

Now is the time to start to move all of that into delivery and into action and I couldn’t be more excited than the year ahead, that’s the major focus of our work.

We’ll continue to campaign, we’ll continue to work hard around the safeguarding, welfare and integrity and gender for sport, making it safe, welcoming and inclusive for all.