About us

This special interest group works closely with industry partners including Virgin Active and Sport England in evaluating the delivery and impact of community sport, physical activity and health interventions, positive youth development in sport, and policy/strategy implementation. We support Active Partnerships in evaluating the impact and reach of their campaigns, and investigate policy to practice, housing developments, physical activity provision and Section 106.

Measures to improve sport participation; create and maintain safe and productive communities; physical education and government policy; school sport premium and primary PE funding; outsourcing and coach-teacher interaction in primary PE.

Staff Members

• Stuart Wilson
• Professor Angel Chater
• Dr Joanne Hill

Research student success

• Rianna Price, MA by Research. An examination of the recontextualisation of national sport policy when implemented into practice: a case study of Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign. Awarded 2020.
• Max Smith, MA by Research. Collaborative delivery of primary Physical Education: the role of external delivery providers. Awarded 2019

Recent book chapters

• Bartle, M. and Craig, P. (2017). Learning through international volunteering. In A. Benson and N. Wise (eds.) International sport volunteering. London: Routledge.

Recent grants

• Stewart, A. and Wilson, S. Sport for Change: managing and supporting health interventions in Bedford Borough in partnership with Sport Bedford and the Harpur Trust

Current consultancy and funding

Erasmus+ Project Holland: Sport for Development Project - Changing the Game by Changing the Players. 2015-2017 and 2019-2021

Erasmus+ Project International Partners:

• International Sport Alliance (ISA) (Netherlands)
• Oikos (Netherlands)
• Unify Solutions (Northern Ireland)
• University of Bedfordshire – School of Sport Science and Physical Activity (UK) (Peter Craig and Stuart Wilson)

This Erasmus+ (Holland) funded project focused on enhancing the design and delivery of sports for development programmes. Working with community sports coaches, the project held three training sessions exploring the premise that young people need a safe, inclusive and enabling environment to realize their full potential.

Erasmus+ Project Holland: Sport for Development Project – She Got Game

Erasmus+ Project International Partners:

• International Sport Alliance (ISA) (Netherlands)
• Game (Denmark)
• StadAntwerpen (Belgium)
• StreetGames (UK)
• University of Bedfordshire – School of Sport Science and Physical Activity (UK) (Peter Craig and Stuart Wilson)

Following on from the ‘Changing the Game by Changing the Players’ project ISPAR has worked with its European partners to develop a Europe wide project to improve the opportunities for girls to engage in sport and physical activity. The project has been successful in securing 192,000 Euros from Erasmus Plus. The work commenced in September 2019 for two years. ISPAR has a lead role in the following four areas:

1. Researching the relevant issues around girls engagement in sport and physical activity
2. The development of a resource / best practice guide for community sports organisations to support the engagement of girls in sport and physical activity
3. The dissemination of the knowledge gained through 4 conferences to be held in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Antwerp
4. Supporting the monitoring and evaluation of the project to understand the impact the project has had on community organisations and their practice.