Essay on Sports Development Initiatives for Girls and Boys

Big World Impact is an international charity that aims to create safe sustainable futures for the youth of the world. Their mission is to educate, empower and sustain. They also aim to keep the youth out of trouble and instead get them interested and involved in different sports and areas within sports. An example of their work would be the progress that they have made in Leigh Park since 2014. After just 3 months of delivering activities at Leigh Park, over 250 different young people aged between 9 and 19 were accessing the sessions weekly and the numbers kept on rising.

One of the main barriers that Big World Impact overcomes is the barrier of time. Many young people are not able to participate in sport because they do not have enough free time to participate in the session. This initiative overcomes this barrier by providing many sessions available at many different times, especially during the school holidays. This allows lots of opportunities for many young people to participate and because the sessions are free the young people can turn up to any session, they want.

Another chief barrier that Big World Impact overcomes is the barrier of the gender divide. Big world impact offers sporting activities that are appealing to both boys and girls aged between 9 and 19. Furthermore, they also offer sports leadership courses. This allows participants in the sessions to become more confident as a leader in sports and could lead to young people wanting to take up a serious career in sport.

Another important barrier that Big World Impact overcomes is the barrier of cost, due to the fact, the sessions that they provide are free to the local youth and also offer other opportunities to the local youth, such as awareness workshops. By providing these sessions for free, it means that anyone that would like to participate in the clubs can do so without worrying about the costs involved in participating in other sports.

An example of a club that has benefited from this scheme is Havant and Waterlooville Football Club. They benefited because they were able to get some publicity for helping out by providing professional equipment and coaching for the people who came to participate in football. Furthermore, it could have been the use for the football club to use this opportunity as a pool to find young talent to add to their youth squads, which can also be seen as a benefit.

This Girl Can is a national sporting development initiative that was developed by Sports England. This initiative was designed to help the recognition and promotion of women in sport. This is one of the most well-known and has encouraged a vast number of women to get more active. They provide a large variety of sports. This means that no matter what you are into, there will always be something that you can get involved in, meaning that it is very inclusive. 41% of women aged 14-40 who recognize the campaign say they have done some or more activity as a result equivalent to 2.8 million women across England (Source: TNS BRMB for Sports England). An example of a center that has made use of the scheme is the Leicester Shire and Rutland Sport. They have organized events such as Charity Nights Out. At these Nights Out you can participate in activities such as netball, jungle body Konga and burlesque.

One of the main benefits of the This Girl Can initiative is that it offers a vast variety of locations in which the activities take place. This is very beneficial because women will not need to worry about where they live or their transport situation, which is a huge barrier for a lot of women across the UK.

Another thing is that beneficial about this initiative is that it overcomes the barrier to participation for women, which is one of the main reasons that This Girl Can be introduced. This is good because it has been suggested in the past by many people, that women do not have enough sporting opportunities to participate in.

Another benefit of This Girl Can is that it is very well promoted. This Girl Can has aired adverts on TV and social media which has inspired thousands of women to search for the initiative up on the internet and possibly consider getting involved after reading more about what they do.

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Compare and contrast of Big World Impact and This Girl Can

The first comparison that can be made is that both of the initiatives attempt to promote sports and activity towards two target groups that are considered to lack the opportunity to participate, less well-off children and women. This is very beneficial because it gives an opportunity to participate and enjoy the wide variety of sports that is provided by both initiatives, to those people who previously did not have a chance to participate for different reasons. Furthermore, by aiming their initiatives at less well of children and women, both are more easily recognizable because of the fact that they are both unique, and the more they get recognized the better the situation will be for the initiative, and the people involved in it, as there could an increase in funding, for example, which would allow the initiatives to grow bigger and better.

A contrast that can be made between the two initiatives is that Big World Impact offers sports sessions and more to its participants and audience. For example, it offers the opportunity for many to develop leadership skills that will be able to help them in their sporting endeavors or for other future plans that they may have. Things such as the leadership sessions are a good option for the This Girl Can to incorporate into their own initiative, rather than just learning fitness tips and new sports. This would increase their participation levels for them and will help people with life skills.

Another comparison that can be made between the two initiatives is that they both have lots and lots of sessions active at different times throughout the week. This means that there will be sessions that is on at a time that suits almost any potential participant who is considering taking part. Having lots of sessions on throughout the week is very important for almost all sports initiatives because it allows their initiative to become more well-known and will interest more people, allowing both of the initiatives to become bigger and better.

Another contrast that can be made between the two initiatives is that This Girl Can is a lot bigger than Big World Impact. The difference between the two, in terms of coverage, is huge and partly the reason why This Girl Can is a lot more recognized than Big World Impact. This Girl Can has a lot more funding as it is a national sports initiative developed by Sports England, in contrast, Big World Impact is a charity so doesn`t have as much funding as This Girl Can. In order to get more funding, Big World Impact can get more partnerships which will raise its profile and attract more partnerships.

Another comparison that can be made between the two initiatives is that they both aim for getting more people involved in sports. This is so that the initiatives can encourage more people to choose a healthier and more active lifestyle which will, not only help them in the long term but can also make the participants feel better about themselves in the short term. One method that both This Girl Can and Big World Impact use in order to achieve their aim of getting more people involved in sports, is by offering sports that are not considered mainstream (e.g., archery and sailing). This method can help drive up participation levels and, therefore, allow both of the initiatives to grow bigger and better and more well-known.

Another contrast that can be made between the two initiatives is that This Girl Can has a lot more advertisements to raise the profile of their won initiative. By investing in advertising, there is a likely possibility that there will be an increase in participation levels. In contrast, Big World Impact is a charity and simply does not have the funding to advertise like This Girl Can, at present. This means that their participation rates will not grow as quickly as This Girl Can, as they can only advertise locally, but they have the potential to grow bigger and increase the number of partnerships that they have.

Suggestions for improvement

An improvement that could be suggested to improve the This Girl Can initiative is for them to try and reach more into secondary schools, colleges and universities. This would be a good target area for the initiative to focus on as it is primarily around these ages that a woman is most conscious about their body and if they are unhappy then this is the perfect time to switch up their lifestyle. This could be especially true for someone who is very unhealthy because it means they will have a chance to change their ways before they do damage to their body. This would be a good consideration for the initiative to make because, as it is a free service, it means that This Girl Can will be especially appealing to girls who are in the age group that do not have the funds to, for example, join gyms, because they are full-time education and not able to work.

Another improvement that could be suggested to improve the This Girl Can initiative is for them to offer the participants that take part in the scheme, not only the chance to take part and get fit, but also to take up more of a leadership role. In order to achieve this, This Girl Can organize some leadership and coaching qualifications that they could run to give an opportunity to those who want to get into a sports profession. By doing this, This Girl Can will be able to build up a reputation for developing sports leaders as well as assisting women trying to get fit.

An improvement that could be suggested to improve the Big World Impact initiative is to expand and increase the area that they are working in because, at present, they are heavily concentrated in offering sports sessions in Leigh Park. This is a good place to offer their sessions because around the area, the vast majority of the children around Leigh Park are not as well off as others, but the initiative should try and provide these sporting opportunities to other children in different areas similar to the areas around Leigh Park. By doing this, Big World Impact could be able to make themselves more well-known and give themselves the opportunity to make more partnerships which would increase the funding, awareness of eh charity, and, most importantly, participation.

Another improvement that could be suggested to improve the Big World Impact initiative is for them to get more involved with schools as their target age is 9-18. This would be a logical decision to make because it helps them try and raise awareness that they are offering free sports sessions for kids and will have a high chance of increasing participation. A benefit of this is that, as the sessions are free, it is likely to tempt the kids to participate as most, if not all, are not likely to be earning money and the initiative may be offering something that they have not tried and would like to try out or if they are offering something that the kid especially loves participating in.