The goal of the Chiles Webster Batson Commission is to explore the importance of sport for young people and their communities, and the role that sport can play in supporting low income neigbourhoods. Its key objective is to identify, highlight and amplify the voices of community-based sports organisations.
These community organisations play a vital role in supporting some of the most vulnerable young people in the country. Evidence suggests they are more effective than any other type of organisation at activating the hardest to reach young people, yet their importance is often not reflected in the support or recognition they receive from Government, from funders, or from the wider sports sector.
The Commission will combine academic evidence, and in-depth conversations with community organisations themselves, to assess the strengths, challenges and opportunities for this under-appreciated sector and to hear first hand what they need to deliver for their participants.
The Commission is independent and evidence led. It seeks the broadest possible dialogue – bringing together academics, professional bodies, frontline organisations and the young people who benefit from them.
The emphasis is on finding, understanding and amplifying the experiences of children, young people, and the neighbourhood organisations that support them. These are the voices which can give us a true picture of how community organisations activate inactive communities and change lives through sport.
The Commission will host six round-tables that focus on these key questions:
• What role do neighbourhood organisations play in social change?
• Why does sport matter to children and young people in left behind neighbourhoods?
• How is sport used by these community organisations as a lever to deliver wider social change?
• What do neighbourhood organisations have to say about what works?