London 2012 Mass Participation Legacy Plans Unveiled - Places People Play
The Olympic and Paralympic stakeholders came together on the 15th November to announce plans for the mass participation legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Unveiled by the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP, and Sport England, Places People Play will bring the sporting legacy to life in communities across the country, answering London 2012's Singapore promise to inspire a new generation to play sport.
Places People Play is a £135 million initiative which has been made possible by the Government's National Lottery reforms, bringing additional funding into grassroots sport.
It will be delivered by Sport England, in partnership with the British Olympic Association (BOA), the British Paralympic Association (BPA), with the backing of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the London 2012 Inspire Mark.
It will bring the inspiration and magic of a home Olympics and Paralympics into the heart of local communities, encouraging more people to get involved in sport.
Places
The plan is to transform the places where people play sport, making the benefits of 2012 visible in cities, towns and villages across the country by:
- Upgrading up to a thousand local sports clubs and facilities;
- Investing in a number of iconic multi-sport facilities that set the standards for future facilities development;
- Protecting and improving hundreds of playing fields across the country, preserving high quality spaces for local people to play and enjoy sport.
- These facilities will be the only ones to carry the London 2012 Inspire mark, a permanent celebration of their role in the legacy of the Games.
People
The aim is to inspire people to make sport happen at the local level, embedding the Olympic and Paralympic values in grassroots sport.
This will be done by recruiting, training and deploying 40,000 sports leaders as the next generation of sports volunteers to organise and lead grassroots sporting activities.
County sports partnerships have an important role to play within this programme.
Play
The plan is to create the sporting opportunities and challenges that give everyone the chance to become part of the mass participation legacy, through:
- Gold Challenge - an initiative that will motivate over 100,000 adults to test themselves in multiple Olympic and Paralympic sports, and in doing so raise millions of pounds for charity; and
- Sportivate - a nationwide campaign that will capture the excitement of sport, providing opportunities for teenagers and young adults (aged 14-25) to receive six weeks of coaching in the sport of their choice and guiding them into regular participation within their community. Further summary headline details
Consultation will also be taking place with people with disabilities and those who support them on how additional investment (at least £8 million) can best focus on the barriers they face when they want to play sport, as well as ensuring that every element of this programme works for disabled sportsmen and women too.
