In 2016, over 55% of the LGBT+ community was not active enough to maintain good health.1 Energise Me want to understand why and improve their experiences. Through our survey, we’ll explore the impact the physical activity and sport workforce has on LGBT+ participation.
A national survey in 2017 revealed that LGBT+ people’s general health is worse than that of heterosexual people.2 Individuals identifying as LGBT+ are more likely to access mental health services and to be inactive.3 Yet, as a sector, we know very little about their real and perceived barriers to participation in physical activity and sport.
As the Active Partnership for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, we’re passionate about tackling inactivity. We believe the physical activity workforce plays a vital role in supporting people to be more physically active. This workforce includes anyone involved in leading, supporting or delivering physical activity or sport.
The Pride in Our Workforce Project
Pride in Our Workforce will combine specialist insight and innovative approaches to address gaps in knowledge. It will explore the role of the workforce in influencing and supporting participation.
Through the survey and focus groups, we aim to understand the needs of the LGBT+ community. In particular, we hope to identify the skills and attributes they are looking for from those who support them to be physically active.
We will also address the training needs of the wider workforce to ensure individuals feel confident and appropriately skilled to support LGBT+ participants.
We have worked in partnership with Bournemouth University to develop a survey targeted at members of the LGBT+ community and the physical activity and sport workforce. The project has been supported by Pride Sports and Sport England.
El Taylor-Jenks, Project Officer – Workforce, said:
“We’re excited to have gone live with our survey. We’re keen to see how far and wide it will be shared across the LGBT+ and sporting communities. There has been a huge amount of support and enthusiasm, locally and nationally, for the research. Our aim is to share our findings with partners across the country to enable the workforce to better support the LGBT+ community. We hope Pride in Our Workforce will lead to more members of the LGBT+ community participating in physical activity and joining the workforce.”
Complete the Energise Pride survey
Pride in Our Workforce was one of 10 projects to receive innovation funding from Sport England in 2019. It is part of our ongoing commitment to beating inactivity, which you can read all about on our About Us pages. If you would like to know more about our plans for Pride in Our Workforce, please get in touch with El, Harry or Sophie.
[1] Pride Sport, Sport, Physical Activity and LGBT Report 2016
[2] National Institute of Economic and Social Research 2017 review of the government’s National LGBT survey
[3] Public Health, Everybody Active, Every Day, 2014
