It's time to support sport differently to drive positive change

By Sophie Mason, Made By Sport CEO

When you think about sport and 2021, what comes to mind?  

Our Three Lions making the finals of the EUROs? A medal-filled Olympic and Paralympic season? The wonder that is Emma Raducanu?

For many, it acted as a momentary distraction from the toughest times, the much-needed light at the end of the tunnel.

However, for young people, It has the power to be a permanent solution to a myriad of problems. We just need to look beyond the medals and the wins and appreciate what it can do.  

Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka didn’t respond to the abuse they faced that fateful night in Wembley with football. They responded with what football had taught them; resilience, teamwork, a want to bridge divides.

Our young people are facing huge challenges. We’re facing a new pandemic in mental health with an era of austerity coupled with the devastating social impacts of the Covid-19 lockdowns leaving a generation feeling lost and uncertain, their mental health affected to the extent that more than three quarters have reported issues with sleep, panic attacks and the urge to self-harm.

We know that sport at a grassroots level is a vehicle to address these mounting issues, providing much needed tools and skills to respond to the challenges that face them; mental health, crime involvement, struggling to find employment.

Yet, it is a solution that is so often overlooked and one that is woefully underfunded.

Working with our partners, we have supported community sports clubs facing closure that are providing life changing programmes and spaces to young people across the UK.

Made by Sport is now calling on business to use a greater proportion of its vast resources to invest in grassroots sport as part of its charitable and ESG activity. Investment into sport as a vehicle for social change presents a significant commercial opportunity to leave a lasting impact on society.

Made By Sport has the platform to help business and wealthy individuals to make a real difference through sustainable and compelling programmes – just ask our partners how much we have already done together. But we are only just getting started.

British Business needs to lead the way and engage with sport differently, to stand up and create its own sporting legacy, to help us reach our goal of rebuilding the lives of young people and providing society with the support it so desperately needs.

Better futures can be Made By Sport – now it’s time to show you mean business.

For more information about how your organisation can invest in sport please visit www.madebysport.com