The Leeds Summit on Community Sport for Development and Diplomacy saw more than 70 participants, practitioners and policy-makers, athletes and academics convene at the University of Leeds over two days in September 2025 to debate the power and potential of community sport as a developmental and diplomatic tool for both local and global impact. ConnectSport CIC was media partner for the event and, in this series of short articles, our reporter Josh Chadwick-Birch spoke to attendees about what they gained from the Summit.

Josh: Hi Lee, please can you tell us about your role? 

Lee: I'm the CEO at Fight for Peace, which is an organisation that supports over 1,200 young people each year. Fight for Peace was founded in Brazil in the year 2000, and developed a Five Pillar approach - combining Boxing and Martial Arts, Education, Employability Support, Youth Leadership opportunities, and Support Services – to help young people realise their full potential and thrive. This approach was brought to London in 2007, when we opened an academy in North Woolwich, and has since been shared with our Alliance - a vast network of like-minded boxing and martial arts clubs in the UK and around the world - to amplify its impact for young people.

What are you hoping to gain from this Summit? 

I think it's really good to listen to other people's perspectives and ideas, and find out what they're doing - and obviously to share our own story. It's good to publicise what we're doing, and that's important. Yet, the key is getting the balance right between the two: some key takeaways and, hopefully, gain some new connections and develop these further!

What key development would you like to see happen in community sport over the next five years?

I guess you get the same answer from most organisations - or I'm surprised if you don't! It's about more funding for community sport. I think the output that community sport delivers is undervalued, and therefore the investment is not going in. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the investment to go into community sport, allowing it to flourish. Ultimately, this will take the strain off other public services.

Thanks for speaking to ConnectSport, Lee.

Find out more at fightforpeace.net

Read the Leeds Declaration on Community Sport for Development & Diplomacy.

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