The Summer of Sport Festival, which took place on 25 August, was organised by StreetGames, in partnership with London Youth and the Jack Petchey Foundation. It brought together children from 45 different organisations, and gave them a chance to try sports as varied as BMX, judo, bubble football, boxing, climbing, and American football at the site of the handball and goalball arena from London 2012.
With the event taking place during the summer, a key focus of the organisers was to ensure that there were lunches available for the children, many of whom are eligible for free school meals and have been hardest hit by the cost of living crisis.
We had the opportunity to go to the event and hear from StreetGames CEO, Mark Lawrie, about why the event was so important:
“One of the things that is really important to us as an organisation is the fact that many of these children do not get fed during the holidays, because they are often the ones that are eligible for free school meals, and with the schools not being open, they don’t necessarily get food at the moment.
“We’ve all seen on the television what the cost of living is doing and we’re feeling it probably individually – if you can imagine that for a family with an income of less than £7,000 a year, that’s a very different experience.”
Trudy-Ann Campbell, who is StreetGames’ Doorstep Sports Advisor for the north-west London area, outlined how the event builds on the work of StreetGames and other local organisations.
“Today, we’ve brought some of our local organisations in to bring the young people along and experience these amazing sports that we’ve got on today. It’s amazing, and I think it’s a wonderful thing what StreetGames are doing, especially with the work we’re doing with the community.
“Working with these local organisations, we support them to be able to access doorstep sports and help young people to be able to have something to do during non-school hours, and help them with their learning as well with our academic side of things.”
