Faith and Culture

Through our work we strive to ensure every young person can participate in PE, Sport and Play, embracing their faith and/or culture, whilst educating others to increase the voice of young people from under-represented groups.

Evidence of Need

In the recent YST National Girls Active Survey, data showed that 81% of young people of Christian faith enjoy taking part in physical activity, compared with 69% of young people of Muslim faith and 67% of Sikh faith. Similarly, 75% of young people of Christian faith reported enjoying taking part in PE at school, compared with 66% of young people from Muslim faith and 56% from Sikh faith.

Per week, young people of Muslim faith report 2.9 days out of 7 that they are physically active on compared with 3.5 days for young people of Christian or Sikh faith. Outside of school, young people of Muslim faith report being physically active on 1.9 days out of 7, compared with 2.8 days and 2.9 days a week for young people of Christian and Sikh faiths, respectively.

More young people of Muslim faith appear to report barriers to being more active in school than young people from other faiths. In particular, 28% of girls of Muslim faith report not liking taking part with boys and that this stops them being more active at school, compared with 15% of Christian girls, 19% of Sikh girls and 18% of girls of no faith.

Did you know?

69%
The percentage of young people of Muslim faith who enjoy taking part in physical activity, compared with 81% of young people of Christian faith.
1.9
The number of days young people of Muslim faith report being physically active outside of school, compared to 2.8 days for young people of Christian faith.
28%
The percentage of girls of Muslim faith who report not liking taking part with boys and that this stops them being more active at school.

Our Work

Breaking Boundaries

Breaking Boundaries was a three-year programme funded by Spirit of 2012, supported by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and The Institute of Community Cohesion (Icoco), which worked to socially connect young people, their families and communities together through regular cricket engagement, fostering mutual respect, and friendships by playing, spectating, and volunteering.

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Commonwealth Connections

Commonwealth Connections was a joint project from the British Council and the Birmingham Organising Committee for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which twinned 60 schools in the West Midlands with 60 overseas schools across 10 Commonwealth countries, to design and deliver activities based on Commonwealth sports.

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Birmingham Connect

Birmingham Connect was designed to promote social integration of young people aged 12-14 years old in Birmingham in advance of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It paired schools across the city to encourage meaningful social mixing to improve attitudes and perceptions held of people from different backgrounds; driven by young people as the catalyst for change.

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Unified Action - Diversifying Sports Governance

Unified Action was a 12-month pilot research project, concluding in March 2024, which was created to diversify sports governance and build inclusive cultures within National Governing Bodies of Sport.

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Black History Month

We’ve been working to elevate diverse voices in youth sport and education, from leadership programs to the Include Summit and beyond. Read more about how we’re championing inclusion and tackling inequalities.

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Impact to Date

Through our work, young people have told us that they are motivated to have their voices heard to tackle some of the challenges they have experienced in their own lives. They feel they have been able to bring about long-term change, educating others to increase the voice of under-represented young people changing perceptions and attitudes towards others.

Examples include:

Birmingham Connect

12 schools across Birmingham took part in Birmingham Connect. A total of 26 teachers were engaged and 83 Connectors (Young Leaders) were recruited. It is estimated that a total of 1,581 young people participated in the programme. This programme developed a greater understanding of different cultures through sport.

 By the end of the programme, 94% of Connectors ‘agreed’ that they have a good understanding of different cultures and 85% agreed that they can easily trust people from different cultures. 100% of the Connectors also reported that they accept other people’s opinions. A lead practitioner highlighted that her Connectors noticed differences between themselves and some of the other young people, but it was not a barrier to them mixing.

Breaking Boundaries

83% of Community Champions and participants, aged 14-25 in Breaking Boundaries, were from Ethnically Diverse Communities, far above the 15% in England. The programme used sport as a tool to increase social cohesion and integration across different communities and cultures in five areas, Bradford, Birmingham, Slough, Manchester and Barking and Dagenham.

Unified Action – Diversifying Sport Governance

Led by eight young people (Changemakers) from ethnically diverse communities, responding to the injustice of underrepresentation in sport governance – promoting their voices to challenge and change structural inequality and achieve greater diversity in sport governance and wider society, working with three NGBs.

Contact Us

If you would like to find out more about this area of our work then get in touch with us today.

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