Sports Key, our local delivery partners in Birmingham, feel they benefited from the ‘thinking time’ given to them by Covid-19 and have re-emerged stronger post-lockdown.
The organisation runs sport sessions for children and adults in and around the hugely diverse but disadvantaged Perry Barr area which obviously had to be curtailed due to the strict regulations during the depths of the pandemic.
Sports Key exists to bring their local community together, break down traditional barriers to sport and physical activity and offer a safe, accessible and welcoming space where local people can improve their physical and mental wellbeing.
Sports Key staff maintained engagement with their regular participants via WhatsApp during lockdown – but otherwise co-founders Jeavon Nicely and Daniel Allen used the ‘down time’ to create sustainability and development plans and think about Sports Key’s long-term objectives.
“I wouldn’t say Covid had a massively negative impact on us,” said Jeavon. “Obviously we couldn’t engage with our community how we used to, but long-term it has kind of benefited us. It has allowed us to spend time on the organisation rather than just delivering week-to-week.
“It gave us time to focus on the next five years, how we’re going to deliver our programmes and who the project is going to engage with.”
Jeavon and Daniel produced a comprehensive review, a delivery plan and a three-five year development plan. The delivery plan was perhaps the most crucial.
“At first we didn’t understand how important it was, but when we put everything down on paper we realised how much work and detail each activity takes. That’s helped us.
“Having mapped every detail out, we’re now able to go away and leave our volunteers to run sessions by themselves, whereas before we’d have to cancel a session if neither of us were around. That helps us and helps the community to continue engaging.”
They also used the lockdowns to work on other elements of their sustainability. “We don’t want to be too funding-reliant or grant-reliant and as we’re all about providing low-cost activity we obviously don’t want to charge our participants,” said Jeavon.
“Instead, we’ve looked at how we can create a business model to generate our own income. We want to create another arm of Sports Key which is all about generating profit through merchandise or consultancy work with other agencies.”
Sports Key have got involved with the Commonwealth Games cultural and legacy programme. Many of the children and young people on their programme have signed up as Games volunteers and attended launch events (see above).
“There’s much more demand for activity since we've started again,” said Jeavon. “We did a consultation with our participants and they told us they were suffering from isolation, boredom and lack of motivation. When people returned it was obvious some had put on weight. But we’re flying again now.
“We put in competitive elements to all our programes – football, netball, badminton, cycling, boxercise and more,” said Jeavon. “But ultimately we’re all about engagement with the community, building relationships and creating a better, healthier lifestyle, both physically and mentally.”
Read more about Sports Key here.