2018 marks a special year for Sported as we celebrate our tenth anniversary,  having been incorporated as a charity back on 20th March 2008.

What started as Sir Keith Mills’ vision – as then Deputy Chair of LOCOG – to provide a life-line to the thousands of community sport groups which play a pivotal role in the lives of young people, has since grown into the largest membership organisation for Sport for Development groups in the UK.

Our membership network now spans over 3,000 community sport and youth groups across all regions of the UK, delivering over 90 different sports, and tackling issues as diverse as homelessness and knife crime, to employability and mental health.

In our ten years, we’ve awarded over £3 million in grants to our members, and with the support of our brilliant volunteers  have helped them to leverage and secure even more via external funding; launched Sportworks – our pioneering research and impact measurement tool; and built partnerships with leading organisations in both the sport and commercial sector – all for the benefit of our members.

Whilst we are enormously proud of what we’ve achieved, we know that our members still face huge financial and operational challenges, and the young people they serve in the poorest areas of the UK still bear the brunt of social inequalities. We know sport has an important role to play and we remain determined to help our members harness its power to transform the lives of young people and their local communities.

Over the course of 2018 we will be celebrating our tenth anniversary with member and volunteer events across all our nations and regions, so please keep an eye on your emails and our social channels for all the details.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported Sported over the last ten years, without which our work would simply not be possible. Thank you!