Active Communities Network and Premier Rugby, in partnership with Drinkaware, have come up with a ground breaking new project, which will see specially trained community staff from Premiership Rugby Clubs and local youth workers deliver sports based alcohol education to young people aged 13-19.  The campaign, ‘Side Stepping Alcohol Misuse’ is the highest funded scheme Drinkaware have endorsed, contributing £100,000 of funds to the project. 

Chris Sorek, Chief Executive of Drinkaware said “earlier young people have alcohol, the more likely they are to binge drink in their teenage years and develop alcohol problems later in life – which is why it’s imperative young people put off drinking for as long as possible. Changing young people’s attitudes and behaviours towards drinking can be a difficult task but teaming sports with alcohol education is a great way to help get the message across.” 

Players from the 12 Guinness Premiership clubs will take part in the programme, including Dan Ward Smith of the London Wasps who believes the players are in the best position to deliver this important message.  He hopes to educate youngsters on the effects alcohol can have on their bodies, their judgement and their relationships. 

For further information on ‘Side Step Alcohol Misuse’ please visit, www.guinnesspremiership.com/community/drinkaware.

Glasshouse Partnership’s client, Premier Rugby, form one of the conference’s case studies and will offer an analysis of how professional sports clubs and businesses can collaborate on corporate community programs. Ben Breeze of Bristol Rugby will discuss a three-part initiative which seeks to use the medium of sport as a platform to engage with at-risk youth to address anti-social behaviour, anger management and youth offending.

See www.bitc.org.uk/investinginfuture or read the flyer.

conference-flyer

Bath Rugby, Saracens and Newcastle Falcons all made presentations about their community work to a panel of judges which included Derek Wyatt, Paul Farrelly, and Andy Reed (MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Rugby Group), as well as Louise Poole (Head of Sponsorship at EDF Energy), Tanja Rasmussen (Community Investment Campaign Director at Business in the Community) and Mark McCafferty (Premier Rugby’s Chief Executive). In the end the judges couldn’t decide on a single winner, and named Bath Rugby and Saracens as community ‘Clubs of the Year.’

You can see photos from the judging and evening reception, video of the judges’ thoughts about the event (including my unsteady camera work–though I blame the camera), and the presentations that the clubs made all on Premier Rugby’s community blog Rugby in the Community.

This week we took the wraps off a new blog we’ve created for Premier Rugby. Professional Rugby in the Community gives Wayne Morris (Premier Rugby’s Community Manager) and the Community Development Officers throughout the Guinness Premiership the chance to talk about the community work they’re doing and about how sport can address key social issues.

Being actively involved in local communities is a top priority for Premier Rugby–clubs must operate community departments to compete in the Guinness Premiership, and players are committed to spending time on community projects through their contracts. This new blog showcases work from around the Premiership and shows how sport can help partners (such as sponsors, NGOs, government departments, and charities) accomplish their CSR goals. Check out the site here.

In fact, the fireworks have already begun.

This week, Michel Platini, head of UEFA, wrote an open letter pleading with Gordon Brown to back his federation in their fight against the ‘malign’ influence of money by amending the Reform Treaty to enhance their powers. Unfortunately, for Platini, Brown seems to have rejected his pleas (see Paul Kelso at the Guardian).

Rejection will be a bitter blow for UEFA which has lobbied hard for the powers of governing bodies to be ‘recognized’ by the EU. The back drop to this campaign has been the changing power balance between players (employees), clubs (employers) and governing bodies (regulators). Or, as the EU White Paper puts it, ‘The emergence of new stakeholders…is posing new questions as regards governance, democracy and representation of interests within the sport movement.’

The arguments which UEFA make strike a chord with many fans, federations and politicians (click here) but does that merit inclusion in the Reform Treaty? Or giving exemptions for governing bodies from the reach of EU law, the core goal for UEFA?

The Asser Institute Sport Law Centre commissioned Professor Wathelet to look at the Arnaut report and its legal arguments. The conclusions came out last week: “…the future of professional sport should not be outside Community law which, as interpreted by the European Court and the European Commission, is probably the best guarantee of maintaining flourishing competition between national teams on the one hand and the spirit of truly European club football on the other.

“When the need really arises, as is the case with regard to the questions of the international match schedule and player availability for national teams, there can be no doubt that the scope of the application of Community law in the sports sector will be refined by the ECJ (…). Far from being a source of legal uncertainty, this jurisprudence will help consolidate and clarify the rights and obligations of the sector’s various parties under EU Law.”

Platini would not agree, of course. But Brown is clearly not the first person to take a different view of the best legal and governance structure for European Sport going forward.

“Newcastle Falcons provide a perfect example of the positive impact that sport has on local communities across England. They impressed all of us when they cited their work in the community as central to their vision of the club’s long term future, but also with the joined up approach they have taken to working with other community partners, notably the RFU,” said Derek Wyatt MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Rugby Group.

Premier Rugby allocated roughly £2m per year to its community projects and 100,000 man hours of service.

The article also points out the positive impact that strong communiy relations can have for an organisation:

It also makes good business sense for a club to be involved in this sort of outreach scheme. “By engaging with your community and understanding the needs in your community, it can really help improve your brand and reputation,” said Michelle Brassell from Business in the Community, an organisation of businesses who aim to improve their impact on society. “It can be more favourable in securing funding or for a planning commission to develop a stadium, for example.”

To read the Guardian article in its entirety, click here.

Football is the most visible sport when it comes to its community investments (thanks in part to the huge impact of the Football Foundation), but rugby union has taken big strides in the ten years since it went pro to ensure money is channelled into its grass roots development and communities – looking after the future, so to speak. Investment has come from the RFU, but also from the Premier Rugby Clubs, who recently picked up a % Club award from Business in the Community.

Sport is trying really hard to invest back in the development of sport. Government is trying to drive elite success and grass roots participation. The problem is that there isnt enough media attention, especially TV, focussed on the ’soft’, grass roots. This means the traditional ‘value’ (awareness) is low, so the price stays low, so the investment stays low, so the impact stays low….ad infinitum.

Solutions: (1) The BBC should dedicate a channel to grass roots community sports (2) Business leaders should put greater emphasis on sports as a mechanism for delivering their CSR policies or programmes. With health in the workplace a critical and coming issue for employers and society, sport clearly has a powerful role to play both ‘on the park’ and ‘in the workplace’.