The countdown is on: the London Sport Awards 2019 are now just a few short weeks away!
With less than a month to go until the big night, we’re focusing in on each of this year’s Award Categories to give you the inside track on each Award and the groups and people that are in the running.
The Sport Unites Award in association with the Mayor of London – who’s up for the Award?
The Sport Unites Award in association with the Mayor of London celebrates organisations that use sport or physical activity to promote social integration in London.
Here’s the three groups in the running to take home the first ever Sport Unites Award on 14 March.
Salaam Peace
Salaam Peace was established by Sabir Bham in the wake of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London to promote positive community engagement through sport. The group uses a number of tactics to both promote the positive elements of Islam and develop opportunities for its members to volutneer, train and gain work.
One of the organisation’s key initiatives has been the Inter-Faiths Cup, a one-day event which encourages young people of all religions to participate and build links in the community. Bham believes that events such as this, the Eid Cup and Football Against Racism in Europe Action Week and support from local Imams and volunteers has helped smash down walls between communities.
The St Matthew’s Project
The St Matthew’s Project is more than just a football club, delivering a wide range of activities and development opportunities and offering support to young people on and off the football pitch. The St Matthew’s Project started life in 2004 and has developed from a kick-about in the local park for young people from the St Matthew’s Estate in Brixton. The origins of the project are linked to an even smaller community – Springett House, a large L-Shaped block on the southern edge of the estate, backing onto Brixton Water Lane. Young people from Springett House were originally reluctant to interact with their peers fromt he rest of the estate, but barriers were broken down with a series of friendly football matches and the creation of Springett FC – the forerunner of today’s St Matthew’s FC.
The project now regularly engages over 160 young people each week from the Lambeth area, has supported training for over 200 FA qualified coaches, developed girls’ football in Lambeth, and consistently provides free football activities to young people living within the most deprived 10% of Deprivation Deciles nationally for crime and living environments.
Young people have come to interact with others from nearby estates, overcoming long-standing hostilities and uniting under the SMP banner.
UK Wallball
Beginning with the UK Wallball Open in February 2018, UK Wallball used the sport’s major primary domestic tournament to kick off a year of activity including school launches, court construction and a community festival that brought together more than 25 organisations around the Westway Sports Centre and the Grenfell Area.
Bringing together more than 1500 people from 12 countries and ranging in ages from 6 to 92, the UK Wallball Open and its subsequent activities used the sport of Wallball to positively impact the communities around the Westway Sports Centre and create a lasting legacy for Wallball in London.
What Our Sponsors Are Saying
We are proud to support the 2019 London Sport Awards, and the Sport Unites category in particular.
The Mayor’s Sport Unites programme plays a key role in achieving his ambition to make London the first city to maximise the potential of sport to help us connect with each other across boundaries – be this in relation to age, faith, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
We need to accept and celebrate each other’s individual narratives, not just tolerate them. This ethos is at the core of the Sport Unites programme and the Mayor’s wider work in social integration.
Dr. Debbie Weekes-Bernard, Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement
Join Us
You can be there with us as we find out who wins the Sport Unites Award at the London Sport Awards 2019. Tickets are on sale now, but hurry – they’re selling fast, and we wouldn’t want you to miss out!
