Sported is a leading UK grassroots sport charity and supports a network of 5,000 sports clubs and community organisations across the UK who are impacting their local communities through sport and physical activity.
Since 2021, we have been working in several locations across England and Wales using a place-based model we call Connected Communities. This approach aims to bring people together in each community to help identify barriers and challenges facing young people in their local area and then develop solutions to these issues. The goal is that these solutions are collaborative, sustainable and, crucially, community-led.
The areas we delivered place-based work are: Hartlepool, the Isle of Wight, Rhyl, and London in Lewisham and Greenwich, Waltham Forest, Ealing and West London, Haringey, and Lambeth and Southwark
As part of Connected Communities, we wanted to know more about what worked well and what the challenges were with this place-based approach. We wanted our own learning to be an important and ongoing part of Connected Communities, making sure that lessons from each location could help other Connected Communities projects as they developed.
We also wanted to share learning from our Connected Communities programme to support others interested in place-based models of working, whether in the sport for development sector or more widely.
Having reviewed our place-based work, we’ve derived some key learnings from Connected Communities so far, and these make up the foundations of Sported’s place-based approach:
Flexibility and balance
Being flexible over intended outcomes, ways of working, and the extent of partner involvement is important. Collaborative place-based working can change over time because of the context of each location and the different capacities of community groups and stakeholders involved; therefore, it’s important to be flexible and change as the needs and demands of the community change.
Taking time
Place-based collaborative work takes time. Time to build trust with those already working within communities, time to build collaborative ways of working, and time to deliver the intended change with local communities. It’s important not to underestimate this and helpful to be realistic when setting out timescales.
Capacity-building
Community groups are often keen to build connections and deliver shared outcomes for their local area. However, we’ve found that not every group is confident or experienced in collaborative, place-based ways of working. Building collective capacity through developing skills and knowledge in this approach can be an important step to empower groups to deliver sustainable methods of working best suited for their local area.
Resourcing
It’s important to have dedicated staff time to support this model of working. This should be a key factor in resource planning at the start of a project. Co-ordinating roles are integral to supporting collaborative work, and making sure to allocate staff time for this kind of work or recruiting someone for this specific role should ideally be part of planning for place-based work.
Relationship mapping
Mapping out existing relationships in the community at the start of and throughout place-based working can be a huge help. It supports ongoing delivery by building a vital picture of key engagement opportunities and provides a helpful resource for evaluation and reflection. Recording how relationships have developed over time can be a great way of telling the story of change for place-based approaches.
Evaluation and learning
Place-based working is complex, and evaluating it can be challenging. With different outcomes and timescales in different areas, it’s helpful to use evaluation and learning approaches that allow for longer-term change. It’s also useful to ask not just ‘what’ is happening but also ‘how-and-why’ change is occurring. Place-based working is a great opportunity to tell the story of change through more visual and narrative approaches, especially around building connections within communities.
We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to share this learning through the London Funders’ summer 2025 Festival of Learning. We hope these learning points are useful for those interested in our Connected Communities model or who might want to develop their own place-based approach in the future.
If you’d like to find out more about Sported’s Connected Communities programme or explore possible collaborative opportunities, please contact Kathryn Foley (North East England Regional Manager) at k.foley@sported.org.uk.