Facts you needs to Know about Sports.

Why Sports and Recreation?

We believe that sport and recreation opportunities are important to the quality of life for individuals and communities within the Borough of Eastleigh.

Sport has the ability to contribute to the wider social issues such as:

Health Benefits
Active Lifestyles
Social Inclusion
Community Safety
Economic
Sustainability

Health Benefits
Participation in sport and an active lifestyle have long been associated with benefits to health. This relationship seems obvious and is now backed by a strong body of research evidence. This evidence suggests that significant health gains are not limited to vigorous physical activity but may also be achieved through frequent moderate levels of physical activity such as cycling, brisk walking or swimming.

Perhaps the biggest selling factor is that physical inactivity costs lives. It is a cause of some of the biggest killers in the UK - heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer - as well as a range of other health problems from depression to osteoporosis.

One of the most important health problems associated with physical inactivity is obesity. The UK is experiencing an epidemic of overweight and obesity. About one adult in five is obese, a proportion which has nearly trebled over the past 20 years. Our obsession with labour saving devices, which reduce the need for physical activity, also plays a part in contributing to a national trend. This ultimately costs the NHS billions of pounds to treat each year.


Active Lifestyles


We work in partnership with local Health Agencies and DC Leisure to provide an exercise referral scheme based at Fleming Park Leisure Centre, which is capable of screening at least 40 patients a month.

As part of this scheme, we offer referred patients a reduced rate programme of physical activity including swimming, aqua therapy, gym sessions, and cardiac rehabilitation. Some of these are based at Hamble and Wildern Schools.

'Healthwalks' are offered across the Borough through the employment of a Walks Co-ordinator and funding from the New Opportunities Fund.

We involve specific groups of the population in regular physical activities such as people with disabilities, mental health patients and ethnic minority groups.

We provide a regular flow of information on the Active Lifestyle Service to GP's, health related professionals, nurses and Borough Councillors


Social Inclusion
"Sport has the power to unite people in a way little else can. Sport can create hope where there was once only despair. It breaks down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of discrimination. Sport speaks to people in a language everyone can understand." - Nelson Mandela

The potential for sport and recreation to change lives is well documented through much experiential evidence. Its capacity to dispel ignorance, challenge prejudice and allow individuals to realise their full potential is huge.

Where initiatives have been targeted within socially deprived areas, the positive outcomes reported include an increase in confidence, self-esteem, trust and self-reliance. Similar outcomes are also achieved where initiatives target people with either a physical, learning or sensory disability, or those from under represented ethnic groups.

Community Safety
Levels of anti-social behaviour and criminal activity among young people are a major problem for society as a whole. The causes of crime and disaffection among young people are complex and it would be naive to think that sport alone can reduce the levels of youth crime in 'hot spot' areas.

Over the last 15 years however, sports, outdoor pursuits and constructive leisure activities have been a well established feature of initiatives whose aim is to divert offenders and young people at risk away from crime.

Although there is no hard scientific evidence of a direct causal relationship between involvement in sport and reductions in criminal activity, there is growing experiential evidence that sport can play an influential role. Indirectly sport can have an impact by providing challenge and adventure, whilst also giving a sense of purpose to young people's lives. Sport delivered in a sound ethical framework can engender self-respect, self-esteem, confidence and leadership abilities.

Economic
Sport can often mean big business. Where investment in large-scale regional sports facilities has been made, not only has this enhanced the physical fabric of communities, but the impact has also stimulated the economy and improved the area's image with outside investors and tourists.

In addition to the economic regeneration benefits that can flow from investment in sport, substantial savings can be made in the economy from the health gains associated with increased levels of physical activity. Research evidence suggests that promoting physical activity for employees makes good business sense.

Sustainability
Playing fields, parks, urban green spaces, play areas, countryside sites, rivers/lakes, allotments, cycle ways and walking routes, are extremely valuable resources on which local communities rely not only to break up the urban built environment, but to offer areas for informal recreation. For example: kickabout, play running, walking, cycling and even tending an allotment. They have the ability to breath life into densely populated urban areas.

Recent policy guidance recognises the need to incorporate a variety of land uses within new developments and views recreational facilities as an integral part of creating sustainable communities and reducing the reliance on car travel.