4 Weeks and Counting

I can’t quite believe that we’re a little over a month away from the inaugural Community Sport for Development and Diplomacy Summit in Leeds. After months of conceptualisation and planning with J Simon Rofe from the University of Leeds and Dr Jo Clarke from Leeds Beckett University, the summit suddenly feels just around the corner.

Luckily the nervousness that comes with planning such an event (and the ticking clock to getting it good to go) has been offset by the utter excitement at hosting what I think will be the UK’s first community sport for international development and diplomacy summit (please correct me if I’m wrong!).

I have been blown away by the range of incredible people and organisations from across the country who will be there. We’re just about at capacity, wanting to keep the event to around 50 organisations who are already making the UK and the world a better place.

Huge thanks this week to colleagues at the Department of Health and Social Care for talking us through their international work and their new 10-year plan. Great to see that community sport is recognised as a critical enabler of better public health. Something that participants at the Summit know all too well.

Something that we also discussed this week with Debbie Cook at EFL in Community. What an impact the 72 charities linked to each Football Club have with over 1.1 million participants last season, delivering £1.24 billion worth of social value. We’re excited that Debbie will participate at the Summit, and look forward to discussing the impact of EFL Foundations in the UK and abroad.

Thank you to colleagues at 5K Your Way, Dave Hembrough at Mettle and also Chris Roberts from North Wales Dragons Community Football Team for their time this week. I look forward to training with Chris and the North Wales Dragons in Llandudno in a couple of weeks’ time.

Finally, you’re never too young to get involved in community sport and this week’s photo shows Tom Williams' son Aston practicing what we preach in joining the coaches at the FDS Soccer Summer Camp in Harrogate.