“People Have Nowhere to Go”: Stakeholder Perceptions on Sustainability of Funded Community Sport Programmes

Anees Ikramullah and Niki Koutrou 2025. “People Have Nowhere to Go”: Stakeholder Perceptions on Sustainability of Funded Community Sport Programmes. Social Inclusion. 13 9315. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.9315

Title“People Have Nowhere to Go”: Stakeholder Perceptions on Sustainability of Funded Community Sport Programmes
TypeJournal article
AuthorsAnees Ikramullah and Niki Koutrou
Abstract

Overstated promises of hosting the Olympic Games to deliver sustainable participation legacies have been a common occurrence, and a lesson that the UK did not learn from London 2012. Despite this, schemes like Sportivate that sought to distribute public funds to community intervention initiatives have emerged to promote long‐term engagement in physical activity and sports. This research aims to build further understanding on sport programme/intervention sustainability. Stakeholders of recipient organisations of Sportivate funding through London Sport offered insights on aspects that aid sustainability of their programmes. Semi‐structured interviews took place with 33 board chairs, board members, CEOs, project officers, and coaches positioned at 12 different Sportivate‐funded organisations. For analysis purposes, the organisations that these individuals represented were categorised into Target Achieved and Target Not Achieved to indicate success in meeting Sportivate key performance indicators. Analysis suggests the relevance of policy remodelling, capacity, funding, programme fit, leadership, communication, and social bonds as key areas in achieving sport programme sustainability. However, Target Achieving organisations portray signs of strength in some of these sustainability areas, unlike Target Not Achieving organisations. The complexities of sustainability as a multi‐layered construct provide a starting point for further study, while recognising the relevance of organisation type, capacity, and staff roles in influencing sustainability perceptions.

Article number9315
JournalSocial Inclusion
Journal citation13
ISSN2183-2803
Year2025
PublisherCogitatio Press
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.17645/si.9315
Web address (URL)https://doi.org/10.17645/si.9315
Publication dates
Published31 Mar 2025

Related outputs

The walks often give me a reason to get up and get out in the morning rather than hiding. Towards sustainable community-health enhancing interventions
Niki Koutrou, Angeliki Bistaraki and Anees Ikramullah 2025. The walks often give me a reason to get up and get out in the morning rather than hiding. Towards sustainable community-health enhancing interventions. Sport in Society. 28 (3), pp. 348-369. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2024.2346145

Grassroots football club stakeholders’ sponsorship: the role of happiness and shared values
Hindmarsh, M., Ikramullah, A., Ruiz-Alba, J. and Lopez-Tenorio, Pablo J. 2023. Grassroots football club stakeholders’ sponsorship: the role of happiness and shared values. Management Decision. 62 (2), pp. 513-531. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-02-2023-0281

Sportivate: A Case Study of Sports Policy Implementation and Impact on the Sustainability of Community Physical Activity Programmes
Ikramullah, A. 2018. Sportivate: A Case Study of Sports Policy Implementation and Impact on the Sustainability of Community Physical Activity Programmes. The International Journal of Sport and Society. 9 (3), pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.18848/2152-7857/cgp/v09i03/1-20

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/wz919/-people-have-nowhere-to-go-stakeholder-perceptions-on-sustainability-of-funded-community-sport-programmes


Share this

Usage statistics

0 total views
0 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.