| THE VOICE APRIL 2023
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OF SPORT NEWSPAPER
Role models celebrated Level The Playing Field Awards hail efforts of young people to help communities through sport. By Rodney Hinds
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NDIVIDUALS AND organisations committed to using sport to prevent young people from entering the Criminal Justice System were celebrated at the 2023 Levelling the Playing Field egional wards in Sheffield recently. The Levelling The Playing Field Awards are designed to recognise the dedication and efforts from young people, role models and leaders in positively impacting their communities through sport across the project’s four delivery areas: South Yorkshire, West Midlands, Gwent and London. Levelling the Playing Field (LtPF) is this year hosting regional award ceremonies across these four delivery areas. The winners progress in July. LtPF is a project run by the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice, in partnership with the Youth Justice Board. It uses the power of sport and physical activity to engage and improve health and life outcomes for ethnically diverse children who are more likely to enter, or already involved with the Criminal Justice System. Organised with LtPF’s strategic partners Yorkshire Sport, the event at Concord Sports Centre brought together young people
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and leaders from the community organisations in the Levelling the Playing Field network across South Yorkshire, all of whom use sport and physical activity to engage ethnically diverse children and achieve positive change. Young people, role models, coaches and guests – including representatives from the Youth Justice Service and the Secure Estate – enjoyed activities including wheelchair rugby, dance and basketball. Among the win-ners of the 2023 South Yorkshire Levelling the Play-ing Field Awards were: Young Person of the Year: Mu-fasser Aslam, Saalik Youth Project Mufasser, 21, has been going to sport sessions in the community of Burngreave since the age of six. He now works with his idol Imran Ali as a coach and role model at Saalkin Youth Project with young people starting on the same journey as his own.
POSITIVE CHANGE: Winners at the Levelling The Playing Field Awards; below left, young people enjoy activities including wheelchair rugby
Mufasser said: “Speaking honestly, if it wasn’t for Saalik, I might be doing criminal things because ours is not the best of areas to grow up in and there’s a lot of negative things
going on that are easily accessible. “For us, Saalik plays an important role of being held accountable by your coach and peers for what you say or do. You get questioned on it. That’s very important. “You learn responsibility and you learn that all actions have consequences, whether that’s for yourself or other people.”
Young Cohort of the Year: United 4 Community, Rotherham United Community Sports Trust The United 4 Communities (U4C) group is formed from refugees and asylum seekers housed around Rotherham. The group gets together to play football, improve mental and physical wellbeing and to help integrate into the local community.
Many of its young players have joined local grassroots clubs and some have joined Rotherham United CST as volunteers and have gained coaching ualifications. “We do a lot of hard work with our United 4 Communities group and I think we’ve earned this award,” said coach Ben Bagshaw. “The impact we’re having on the participants has been awesome.”
hle ics a es significan s e s owards gender e ui
By Rodney Hinds WORLD ATHLETICS is to take a significant number of new steps towards gender equity in the sport this year, including 40 per cent female representation on the World Athletics Council. These steps are outlined in a series of new and impactful pledges – published in celebration of International Women’s Day – which include implementing individual safeguarding policies in each of their 214 Member Federations, and the extension of our Ukraine Solidarity Fund – enabling dozens of female Ukrainian athletes to take part in World Athletics Series events.
Each of the new pledges is designed to improve gender equity and close the gender gap in athletics as the organistaion enters the third year of their #WeGrowAthletics campaign. Initially launched on International Women’s Day 2021 with the ambition of eliminating gender bias
in athletics, this campaign has already made notable strides in fulfilling or initiating all of the pledges World Athletics have made in the last 24 months. World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, pictured left, said: “I am immensely proud that World Athletics is once again leading the way for gender equity in sport. It was an important part of the reforms we introduced in 2016. “In today’s world, it is not enough to provide equal opportunity, we must provide equity. “In order to achieve true equity in our sport, it
is important that we offer our female athletes, administrators, and officials the tools and environment they need to be empowered to pursue careers at all levels of athletics – be it by setting quotas for female representation on our Council, or providing more e ible learning and development opportunities that better suit women’s commitments – we are absolutely dedicated to making our sport equitable and representative for all. “I am also proud that, according to research conducted for us by Nielsen, 74 per cent of our fans believe that World Athletics is truly committed to championing equality.
“We are happy to lead the way on gender equity initiatives and set the example for other International Federations. “However, it is important that all of our stakeholders take an active role in helping us achieve our collective goals in this area. From our Member Federations to Local Organising Committees, to the media and photographers who cover our events, each of us plays a crucial part in achieving equity for women in athletics, sport, and every aspect of life. “I invite everyone in our sport to do their part in standing up for gender equity whenever and wherever they see a need for improvement.”
