Let’s defend our mentors as well as the winners of sports trophies in 2025 | Sport

AAs we anticipate what sport will bring us in 2025, we may be tempted to look to the major international tournaments of rugby, cricket and football. But there is another area to consider, less glamorous but absolutely vital, in which sport is making an increasingly significant contribution to society: the growing group of sportsmen and women working as mentors to support young people facing challenges. and to disadvantages.

Organizations such as Dame Kelly Holmes Trust (DKHT), Dallaglio Rugbyworks, Football Beyond Borders and Streetgames use sportsmen and women to provide support, encouragement and build trust to young people stuck in complex adverse situations across the country. It is not enough to attend a sports session; it’s about creating a relationship with a trusted mentor in this context.

Successive governments are constantly rediscovering that there is no simple solution to supporting the “hardest to reach”. Disadvantage and inequality have many different faces. Solutions must adapt to each individual and solve multiple problems over an extended period of time. Sport is not a panacea, but as the Center for Social Justice’s 2023 “Game Changer” report demonstrated, the power of sport is that it can work on many levels and provide physical benefits , mental, emotional and social in one framework. It is time for current ministers to re-read this report to see how sport is an effective tool for social change.

Sports clubs and physical activity groups in many areas are becoming more than just places where children come to have fun, be active and learn about a sport. In many cases, they provide a safe haven where children can connect and form relationships, find care and comfort, and a way to get back on track. It’s less about learning the intricacies of a forehand or backhand and more about finding someone who will listen.

Coaches are doing increasingly important work in this area, often fulfilling the role of youth leader rather than sports technical expert. And alongside them, a largely invisible but increasingly crucial army of sports mentors is growing across the country. Largely unsung heroes, underfunded, but using the valuable life skills and knowledge they have learned through sport, they reach out to young people struggling to find their way.

Mentors themselves have often found their own path through sport, whether involved at grassroots or elite level. The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust trains athletes to bring their highly developed qualities of discipline, responsibility and perseverance to young people in need of support (and to help them find purpose beyond their own sporting careers). Other charities including Youth Sport Trust, Greenhouse Sports, Sport4Life and Tackle London are all realizing the power of using sports mentors as one of the most effective ways of helping to reach young people at risk.

Catherine Baker, Vice President of DKHT, explained to me how sport reaches young people in ways that traditional methods cannot. “Athletes always look ‘cool’, they have status in the eyes of other young people and yet at the same time they can be much more accessible than other adults.” Baker emphasizes the importance of matching athletes with similar backgrounds to those they are working with. Holmes herself is the ultimate role model in this field, having experienced nursing homes and periods of self-harm and now living proof of how athletes can make a broader contribution to society.

Further emphasizing why sport can have such an impact, Baker pointed out that even during a single sport session, a young person can participate in an activity or learn part of a sport skill that they thinks he cannot practice and make tangible progress. . Whether it’s rugby, parkour or tennis, this experience can be a catalyst for realizing this could happen in other areas of their lives. Mentors are then on hand to develop these beliefs and behaviors to apply to their daily challenges. It is the consistency of support provided by a mentoring relationship that allows a young person to raise their aspirations and chart a path towards them. There is a golden opportunity for the Government to challenge decades-old assumptions about sport’s contribution to society, largely focused on entertainment value, national pride in winning medals and the profitability of the Premier League . The sport sits at the end of a raft of issues brought together within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with what little time it has seemingly absorbed by the football regulator’s planning.

But as ministers look for ways to make Whitehall more efficient and work better cross-departmentally to tackle pressing social challenges, sport is one area that could offer a significant way of testing how to work differently in areas of health, education and community development.

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In sport, leaders have work to do to integrate the deeper transformative potential of sport into the heart of their work. Traditionally, sports counted membership numbers, commercial deals, and medals or trophies, focusing on “inputs” and “outcomes” in a narrow sporting context.

It’s time to think more about “sustainable results” and set greater ambitions for sport. How could international success bring lasting benefits to struggling communities? How can successful athletes be led to excel after their sporting career? How will a new sponsorship deal improve the health of your sport at all levels? Together with your members, how could you understand and improve the impact of your sport on their lives to establish a lifelong commitment? Perhaps more importantly, what could you do to open your sport to others who would benefit from joining your community? In other words, start 2025 with the double question: what can your sport do for society and what does society expect from your sport?

As you think about who will be the biggest sporting heroes this year, instead think about those in our sports who will also use their strengths and values ​​to contribute off the field. Become curious about the growing group of sportspeople behind the scenes, with the same tireless work ethic and commitment as those who will be winning trophies in 2025, who are using the attitudes, behaviors and experiences learned in sport to empower young people facing disadvantages across the world. our communities.

It is perhaps the sport’s greatest contribution to the nation this year and one that will far outlast the medal tables and rankings.