Sport 4 Life is the charity that changes lives through the power of sport in Birmingham. We provide sports-themed educational programmes for children and young people, working exclusively in deprived areas.

HOW IT WORKS

Our approach is innovative. We fuse the fun of sport with structured personal development activities, including educational workshops, training courses, and volunteering opportunities, in order to maximise the impact of our work. Our sports-themed educational programmes currently consist of 4 key elements:

SPORTWISE - fun sports coaching sessions and competitions that help children and young people to get active, learn about healthy lifestyles, improve their confidence, and achieve through sport.

STREETWISE - interactive educational workshops on key inner city topics such as crime, substance misuse, and sexual health that support children and young people to transform their behaviour.

SKILLWISE - sports-themed community leadership courses that enable children and young people to learn new skills, gain an accredited qualification, and make a positive contribution to their neighbourhood.

FUTUREWISE - a vocational training programme for NEET 16-25 year olds that equips participants with the skills, knowledge and qualifications they need to get back into education, employment or training.

PROJECT CASE STUDY - BE POSITIVE
Funded by the Big Lottery Fund, the Be Positive project provides a broad programme of fun sports and youth activities (Sportwise), educational workshops (Streetwise), learning challenges (Skillwise), and volunteering opportunities (Futurewise), designed to bring about a lasting positive change in the lives of young males aged 13-25. It is delivered in the Ladywood Ward, an inner city area of considerable deprivation and poverty where 50% of young males live in the top 5% most deprived areas nationally. Over the next 12 months the project will support 60 young males to reach their true potential. Some young males, for example, will improve their employability skills, gain formal qualifications, and re-engage with education or employment. Others will transform their behaviour and cease their involvement in petty crime, or use volunteering to increase their confidence and to get actively involved in their neighbourhood.

PROJECT CASE STUDY - STOCKFIELD YOUTH PROJECT
Through our sports-themed educational programmes, the Stockfield Youth Project improves the lives of children and young people and builds community cohesion in an underprivileged part of East Birmingham. Funded by the Stockfield Community Association, a local social housing provider, the project provides a mixture of sports, youth work, and educational activities in the heart of the Stockfield Estate – a small neighbourhood ranked in the top 10% for income deprivation and where youth anti-social behaviour is a police priority. In the past year the project has engaged over 100 children and young people, supporting them to achieve 1,032 attendances at our sessions, while one of the young people engaged stated “If I didn’t go to the Sport 4 Life sessions, I would probably be sitting at home watching TV. I’m not as bored as I used to be. The sports have helped me to improve as a person. I’m not as cheeky as I was before. It’s all about being proud and positive of who you are.”