In the early summer of 2001, a number of street disturbances occurred in towns and Cities in England involving large numbers of people from different cultural backgrounds. In response The Government set up a ministerial group on public order and community cohesion to investigate why these disturbances took place and how to achieve and promote better community cohesion, based upon shared values and a celebration of diversity. A review team, led my Mr Ted Cantle gathered the views of local residents and community workers in the affected towns and cities to identify why the disorder was happening and made recommendations on how to prevent it. The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit tabled a paper on developing and maintaining cohesion in communities that had experienced disorder or those who were considered at risk. The paper proposed the employment of community facilitators to consult with their communities, and work towards achieving community cohesion through a number of engagement activities.

Within the Borough of Charnwood the Connecting Communities project was created in 2002, which was coordinated by Charnwood Arts, and supported by key organisations including Charnwood Borough Council, Charnwood Racial Equality Council, Leicestershire Constabulary, and Leicestershire County Council. The project focused on 9 areas of Charnwood to identify and explore issues and processes that either promote or act as a barrier to community cohesion locally. The project employed facilitators to carryout consultation work through a series of creative programmes. Connecting Communities has created a magnitude of interesting projects and ongoing initiatives including the Sports-Link Project.

Charnwood Arts supported by the connecting communities partnership submitted a funding application to the Active Communities Development Fund to employ a Sports-Link Project Officer on a 5-year contract to develop sport and recreational opportunities focusing on cohesion and access issues. The initial project bid outlined that the Sports-Link project Officer will specifically seek to develop cross-cultural networking and participation across Charnwood as well as to provide substantial new developments in the promotion of sport locally. Another aim of the project was also to develop and influence mainstream practise in terms of access, engagement, promotion and cultural awareness.

The Sports-Link Project Officer has been in post since August 2003 and has worked in partnership with other individuals and agencies focusing on bringing people together through sport and recreational activities, celebrating differences, and working with communities to open access to opportunity. There have been many success stories within Sports-Link activities in which communities have united through sport including the World At Their Feet project, Positive Activities for Young People, Picnic in the Park, and youth based activities. The Sports-Link project Officer constantly liaises with communities and key organisations within Charnwood to ensure individual needs are being met within communities. The Sports-Link project seeks to identify and remove barriers to sports participation. For more information contact Cath on 01509 821035