Addressing inequalities

GM Moving is on a journey to promote youth voice in all our work, to empower young people to access sport and movement – but in doing it is crucial to be representative of our communities. The data shows that there are gaps in engagement for young people with specific characteristics or identities. GM Moving aims to connect with those communities to listen and understand the barriers and reasons why there is a disconnection and shape services to promote their inclusion.

Across Greater Manchester (GM) we promote inclusivity and equity to enable underrepresented young people to join, take part, feel safe and enjoy movement. To ensure we reach and target those groups at greatest need, we have put into place a system that is open to change and solution focussed, when considering how to support children and young people to move more.

By creating grassroots, community led delivery with young people’s voices first, GM Moving aims to overcome social barriers to activity. Active Lives data also shows that working class young people face more barriers than those with economic or cultural wealth. Therefore, GM Moving has the ongoing ambition to ensure sport and movement is accessible, affordable and in the right place. Intersectionality is important when designing movement for children and young people as the inter-connected factors that influence a young person’s identity can decrease the likelihood of their participation in sport and physical activity.

As a result, intersectionality is key when working with diverse groups; considering the wider circumstances and status of a young person. This has increased partnerships with Youth Justice, Youth Offending teams and Social Care partnerships to work with Looked After Children, Care Experienced young people and young people with Refugee* status.

Partners across Greater Manchester are working together to address the known barriers faced by young people to help provide safe and accessible opportunities for all of our children and young people to move more in a way that works for them. These partnerships include, but aren’t limited to;

• GreaterSport are working in partnership with The Proud Trust to develop workshops and information around LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport and activity. This will help to ensure these young people know when and where they can go to move more in a safe, and inclusive environment, knowing that the staff are informed around sexual orientation and gender identity.
• A range of organisations across GM are using the 2022 Women’s European Football championships, where Greater Manchester will have three host venues, to help encourage more girls to be active.
• Faith groups, community hubs and community leaders working in partnership to enable children and young people from ethnically diverse communities to move more in ways that work for them.

Supporting resources

Top tips to encourage equality and inclusion with children and young people

There are many organisations across Greater Manchester who can support you to help reach underrepresented children and young people in your communities. We have developed some top tips to help you encourage equality and inclusion with children and young people in your work.

Download the top tips here

Inclusive and positive language guide

As we strive to engage and work with diverse audiences, it is increasingly important that our language and imagery reflects our commitment to reducing inequalities and making moving more something for everyone. GreaterSport and other GM Moving partners have created a document together, to provide guidance and set out principles for the use of inclusive language.

Read the guidance here

Key partners

GM Moving work with partners across the region to share expertise to ensure we have the knowledge and understanding of equalities and inclusion to deliver affective and meaningful youth groups. There are resources and information pack widely available to support the learning around equality and maintain a standard of anti-discriminatory practice.

Sporting Equals   Voice opportunity power   Youth focus north west