Community sport and inequalities

We are partnering with the University of Essex to design, deliver and evaluate a complex community sport intervention project across the whole of Essex. The work is funded by Sport England and draws on our established expertise at Brunel in researching community sport for public health and wellbeing outcomes. The work focuses on understanding and addressing inequalities through community approaches to sport delivery. The research is mixed methods and uses large-scale quantitative surveys and qualitative methods with stakeholders from policy and practice.

The project includes an emphasis on public engagement in the design, delivery and evaluation elements and the dissemination. The work is collaborative and involves partners who make decisions about sport and public health, deliver projects and take part in them. The findings will be translated for all stakeholders and are intended to address issues of inequality in communities that mean that some groups are less able to access, engage with or enjoy community sports activities.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Louise Mansfield - Career History Louise Mansfield is Professor of Sport, Health and Social Sciences and Research Lead for Welfare, Health and Wellbeing in the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies.  Her research focuses on the relationship between sport, physical activity and public health and wellbeing. She is interested in partnership and community approaches in sport and physical activity and issues of health, wellbeing, inequality and diversity. She has led research projects for the Department of Health, Youth Sport Trust, sportscotland, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Macmillan Cancer Support, Public Health England and Sport England. She sits on the editorial boards for Leisure Studies, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and is Managing Editor of Annals of Leisure Research. Louise is known for  is known for developing evidence to inform policy and practice.

Project last modified 21/11/2023