Access Sport and UK-wide disability sport partners launch Initiative for young people
New programme ‘From Sideline to Centre’ aims to empower 8,000 young leaders, transform 500 community clubs, and reach 80,000 disabled children and young people across the UK by 2032.
Access Sport, together with Disability Sport Wales, Scottish Disability Sport, and Disability Sport Northern Ireland, announced a groundbreaking partnership to deliver a new a UK-wide initiative designed to transform how sports clubs engage, empower, and support young people to become leaders in community sport.
This project has been made possible thanks to National Lottery players.
Access Sport will receive more than £3.5 million of life-changing funding over six years from The National Lottery Community Fund.
The ambitious programme will place disabled and disadvantaged young people at the centre of community sport leadership by:
- Supporting clubs to develop meaningful youth leadership
- Providing youth-designed pathways into leadership, combining informal roles, mentoring, training and progression opportunities
- Empowering young people to shape inclusive provision, support decision making and influence national policy, funding and the overall sector approach.
The project has been co-designed with young people and builds on successful delivery models already developed by Access Sport. It responds to widespread challenges facing young people in sport, including exclusion from leadership opportunities, barriers to participation, and a lack of influence over decisions that affect their sporting experiences.
The programme is particularly significant at a time when volunteering in sport has declined dramatically, with 1.7 million fewer volunteers than seven years ago, including 500,000 fewer young volunteers aged 16–24. By creating inclusive leadership pathways, the initiative seeks to inspire a new generation of community leaders while strengthening local sports clubs.
The initiative will be led by a UK-wide Project Steering Group made up of Access Sport, Disability Sport Wales, Scottish Disability Sport, and Disability Sport Northern Ireland. Each partner will deliver this work on the ground and help ensure local needs are prioritised, drawing on their expertise and strong connections with communities, clubs, and young people across their nations.
Beyond direct participation, the partners aim to drive long-term systemic change across the sport sector through annual learning forums, policy engagement, shared resources, and youth advocacy. The programme will promote youth voice and disability inclusion as standard practice in community sport, influencing future funding, governance, and delivery models.
Helen Rowbotham, Chief Executive at Access Sport said:
"By bringing together expertise from across all four nations, we have a unique opportunity to create lasting change. This is about more than leadership programmes; it is about building a sporting system where every young person feels heard, valued, and able to contribute. A special thank you to National Lottery players and the National Lottery Community Fund for making this project a reality."
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