England Lacrosse welcomes new Sport England strategy
England Lacrosse is delighted to support Sport England’s new ‘Uniting a Movement’ strategy, setting out 10-year plan for transforming lives and communities through sport and physical activity.
This ambitious plan, unveiled on Tuesday, comes at an ideal time for lacrosse as we set out our own strategies for the future and highlight the role we can play in the nation’s recovery.
As we rebuild from the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we need to reimagine how we keep sport central to the wellbeing of everyone.
The global situation has shown that our operations need to be flexible and adaptive, exploring new formats and new initiatives.
We are committed to taking on the Sport England strategy challenge of making sport more inclusive over the next decade. So, we are accelerating our plans to make lacrosse available to the widest possible audience, ensuring we provide opportunities that meet the wants and the needs of different community groups.
While the pandemic has restricted us all in our individual activities, it has possibly brought the organisation and lacrosse community closer together.
Our schools, universities and clubs are the heart of our sport and bring our lacrosse family together to play as soon as possible is important to everyone; we have worked with our communities on the successful Return to Play of lacrosse last year and we will work as one again to guarantee the recovery of our sport and provide lacrosse as soon as possible.
And as part of that, we must do more to create accessible and inclusive environments to play the sport, within and outside of our current, well-established structures to ensure that everyone feels safe and welcome on the lacrosse field.
Sport England’s commitment to creating positive experiences for children and young people is also something that has always been at the heart of our organisation’s vision.
With over half of lacrosse participation in England carried out by Under 18s, a large proportion of which female, we recognise that both the present and the future of our sport is being developed on the playgrounds, on the junior fields, and within our grassroots clubs around the country.
We will be aiming to strengthen links to bridge the gap between education sectors and community clubs to create a united game through meaningful in-person and digital connections.
We have all embraced technology, and with our communities unable able to connect physically, this is the time to continue to invest in our digital offering and unite our communities in multiple ways through the shared love of lacrosse.
Sport and lacrosse have a key part to play in helping people live healthier and happier lives and It is vital that we are all able to work together to help push forward through the recovery and inspire people to enjoy being a part of the sport no matter their background.
We look forward to seeing you all playing lacrosse very soon.
Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy can be read at www.unitingthemovement.org