Sport Unites: impact and learning

This COVID-19 report outlines the impact of the pandemic on London's community sport sector, and its response. The report measures the impact on Sport Unites projects, the challenges faced by the sector, and the learnings in responding and adapting to the crisis. 

The Mayor’s community sport investment programme, Sport Unites, supports his long-term vision to make London the most active and socially integrated city in the world.

Through Sport Unites investment, the Mayor has supported initiatives addressing the following outcomes:

• decreasing inactivity levels 
• improving mental health 
• decreasing social isolation and increasing social mixing 
• reducing serious youth violence 
• building capacity of people and organisations 
• building capacity of infrastructure and systems.

Findings from the period March 2018 to March 2020 are outlined in the two status reports.

London Together

Through London Together, a partnership between the Mayor of London and Comic Relief, the consultancy InFocus has been commissioned to bring together the different funded projects into a learning community.

The funded projects explore key topics in relation to sport and social integration, with the series of guides produced to bring together the experiences and advice from the different London Together projects. 

Model City London

Model City London is a place-based initiative joint funded by the Mayor of London, Laureus Sport for Good and Nike. NDTi (National Development Team for Inclusion), the evaluation and learning partner and have been working closely with each of the three coalitions to help them explore what they want to achieve through the Model City London programme.  

The Phase 1 Report (January 2018-September 2019) covers the first year establishing the programme, drawing on the experiences and learning from the people directly involved in the design, set up, and resourcing of Model City London in the three participating communities. It showed prioritising in terms of local change strategies and how local communities were engaged to shape these agendas.

The Phase 2 Report (October 2019-March 2020) marks the half-way point for Model City London and focuses on important signs of change from the three coalitions, and the programme as a whole. Five main messages are shared about the changes for local people and coalitions, and what these mean for the near and longer term future of Model City in London and beyond.

The Phase 3 Report (April 2020-October 2020) provides an update on the progress of Model City London and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.