Sport's potential for reducing crime will be a key focus when leading practitioners and academics convene at the UK Sport Development Network (UKSDN) Conference on July 2-3.
Tickets are selling fast for the 'Developing Community Sport' conference at University Centre Hartpury in Gloucester, where main topics for debate will include monitoring and evaluation of initiatives, use of social media to successfully engage communities and sport's role in achieving social objectives.
On the opening day Professor Rosie Meek, a chartered psychologist and sector-leading researcher in the use of sport and physical activity in prisons, will deliver the opening keynote, investigating sport's role in community crime reduction and in preventing prisoners from re-offending after release from custody.
Joining Professor Meek, Professor Andrew Parker and Dr Haydn Morgan will be Justin Coleman, Co-Founder and Secretariat of the Alliance of Sport for the Desistance of Crime, the charity whose purpose is to lead, co-ordinate and evidence the role of sport in crime prevention and criminal justice.
Their combined session will explain an Academic review of the Alliance’s sector-wide Theory of Change – a framework for Sport in Criminal Justice and Sport for Development organisations in how to use sport effectively to engage individuals at-risk of crime and reoffending.
Justin told ConnectSport: “I'm excited to share our ongoing development of this Theory of Change which is an academically-supported model to empower our community with the learning, skills and resources to support the sector.”
Graham Helm, National Doorstep Sport Advisor at StreetGames, will be outlining 10 key principles of effective sport interventions that impact on youth crime and anti-social behaviour.
Hannah Baumer, PhD researcher at Royal Holloway University, will also be on hand to share her analysis of the ‘Cell Workout’ workshops. Led by ex-offender LJ Flanders, the prison-based workshops were designed to improve inmates’ physical fitness, wellbeing and behaviour through intense work-outs, mentoring and group discussion.
Read the UK SDN Conference 2018 programme.
Follow all the latest information @UKSDN2018 and link with the wider network on the Network’s main network Twitter feed @UKSDN.
