Physical activity, play and public health

We provide opportunities for children, young people and young adults to get involved in physical activity and play, from football, boxing and skateboarding to tennis, street golf and much more. By enabling them to try a range of activities we help remove barriers to access and increase the participation of young people in sports. We encourage young people to be active whatever their level of ability, and to have fun, stay well and feel good about themselves.

Play is essential to children’s happiness – and happy children lead to more positive communities.

Our services for children, young people and their families are built around play and include the provision of after school pop up play activities in Sandwell. We enjoy finding creative ways for young people to have fun and develop friendships across a variety of settings. You can find out more about our commitment to supporting children’s ‘right to play’ through our work with Go Play Sandwell.

As well as the fun side, our sports and recreational activities increase our participants’ health and fitness as well as their knowledge of health and well-being. We support young people to develop healthy lifestyles through weight management and food and nutrition programmes. Alongside support for individuals, we run programmes in schools which tackle health related problems such as obesity and diabetes while engaging young people in sports and recreational activities.

Sports aren’t just about physical fitness

Our services are holistic, so at the same time as nurturing physical well-being our sports-based development activity promotes the emotional well-being and overall personal development of young people. For us, sports are not just about physical fitness- through physical activity and play, we see young people learn to overcome challenges and develop key skills and qualities to thrive in their everyday lives. We also provide life coaching and mentoring to support the emotional empowerment of young people. With strong bodies and strong minds we believe young people can achieve anything!

To find out more about our sports-based personal development work take a look at our CAN Youth Sports project.