Sport 4 Life UK
Winner – Improving Impact – charities with 4-25 paid staff
Who they are
Sport 4 Life UK is a youth charity that exists to support socially excluded and disadvantaged young people across Birmingham. Sport 4 Life’s vision is to level the playing field for young people who face an uphill struggle from the very start of their lives, and to create an environment for them to succeed. They deliver sports-themed personal development programmes to help young people to improve their employability and key life skills. Sport 4 Life UK use sport as a tool to engage these young people, but their ultimate goal is to help them into sustainable education, employment or training.
What they’ve achieved
Sport 4 Life UK’s entry impressed us with its clarity, energy and use of supporting data. The charity changed its strategic direction in 2011 after realising that it wasn’t achieving the level of impact it should. The panel was swayed by the longitudinal evidence of this strategic change on young people including increased qualifications, improved self-esteem, reduced reoffending and reengagement with employment or education.
Sport 4 Life UK also explained how they improved methods of recording data and outcomes. This included introducing an online monitoring platform and using industry tools to measure an individual’s journey of change.
Building sustained impact
The board, alongside the SMT, was involved in refocusing the charity through a theory of change exercise before implementing structural and operational changes to enable increased impact.
Changes made included increasing the measurement, evaluation and research budget to ensure that as Sport 4 Life UK grows, measuring and evaluation remains a priority – and standardising the programme across all areas. We were impressed by the board’s efforts to ensure this impact is sustained.
The charity has a new learning and development policy, which sets training requirements for delivery staff, and clear annual targets for impact in their five-year business plan.
