SportBusiness magazine recently ran a piece on sport and CSR that included a case study on Premier Rugby’s community work (case study #2, on the second page of the PDF). I got quoted in the piece:

Our model is that everything we do carries a message for social good, whether it be grass roots participation, social inclusion, education or health. We attach our unique assets to that – the brand, the facilities, the players as role-models and ambassadors. Then we work on an ‘intervention-based’ system where we deliver the Premier Rugby message along with our brand partners and then use a professional development structure to deliver those messages into schools, businesses or clubs.

SportBusiness also participated in this year’s Parliamentary Citizenship Awards, which they covered here.

Using sports stadia as a hub for broadcasting messages and educating consumers can be particularly effective, as it provides a channel to reach those who are often least well informed about maintaining their own health: men. Statistics show men are less inclined to see a doctor than women and have different needs when it comes to communication of health information to men. Stadia are, therefore, ideal ways of reaching this audience as those who visit sport stadia are disproportionately male.

Premier Rugby Limited sees the Healthy Stadia Conference as an innovative way of moving forward the debate about clubs and community.

Last week Paul Sackey, a player for London Wasps and England and an NSPCC ambassador, visited Tilehouse Combined School in Denham Green, Uxbridge to meet students and teach them about bullying. The visit was part of PRL and the NSPCC’s Kick Bullying Into Touch programme, which uses tag rugby to teach schoolchildren about bullying, its effects, and how to address it. The programme also promotes the NSPCC’s ChildLine service.

To date the Kick Bullying Into Touch has been introduced to 135 schools, and by the end of the two year pilot PRL community managers will have run the programme in 780 schools reaching 234,000 children.

Said Sackey: “You don’t always agree with your team mates, but you learn to sort out your differences in a respectful manner and make sure no one is bearing grudges as that can ruin your chances. Kids might be surprised to know this, but even some rugby players have been bullied at school. No one should put up with bullying, but you have to deal with it safely, and I hope by going into schools with ChildLine we can all make play our part in tackling bullying.”

You can watch a video of the day on BucksTV here. You can also learn more about the visit on GuinnessPremiership.com and the London Wasps’s site.

I took part in great match last week that was put on by BARA, the British Asian Rugby Association. The third annual ‘Tag Time’ event got a number of rugby legends (including Martin Offiah, Abi Ekoku, Ady Spencer, and Jason Critchley) and MPs (including Greg Mullholland MP, Andy Reed MP and Neil Turner MP) together for a match to promote the ‘Connecting Communities’ Project, which the Leeds Rugby Foundation is doing with Leeds Metropolitan University to break down cultural barriers and proactively tackle inclusion within sport. The match took place in partnership with both the All Party Parliamentary Rugby League & Rugby Union Groups, and was held at the Harelquins Stoop. You can learn more on BARA’s site here.

Founder and president of ChildLine Esther Rantzen attended the Guinness Premiership Final this past weekend, and spoke to us about ChildLine, boys and bullying, ChildLine’s Child’s Voice Appeal and the upcoming ChildLine Rocks concert.

To date, Community Managers from the Guinness Premiership clubs have introduced the ‘Kick Bullying Into Touch’ programme to 135 schools. By the end of the two year pilot, they will have run the programme in 780 schools to reach 234,000 children with anti-bullying messages. Each child will receive an information card with anti bullying messages from a player from each Premiership club including Steve Borthwick, Jonny Wilkinson and Paul Sackey.

You can learn more about the work we’re doing with the NSPCC on their site here.

Parliamentary CSR Awards from Glasshouse Partnership on Vimeo.

Judges at the assessment stage.

The SportBusiness CSR Award is a new award this year run in conjunction with SportBusiness magazine. It’s designed to reward the efforts of the club with the best community marketing scheme helping to generate tangible brand or business results. This year’s winner is Saracens for their two year Dance programme which has seen over 16,000 children and young people trial dance classes. The judges commended it for its ‘clear focus’, the ‘scale of its reach’ and its ability to ’meld private and public sector’ agendas.

Miriam Sherlock, the editor of SportBusiness, said:

In a particularly strong field it was the Saracens Dance programme that proved to be the most remarkable. Reaching out to those outside of rugby’s usual audience Saracens worked hard in gaining large numbers of involved youngsters in a scheme that gives positive and tangible results in increased sponsorship, ticket sales and in revenue from holiday camp schemes. As well as providing fitness and health benefits it also encouraged a strong link to the team through work with the match day cheerleaders and subsidised tickets and promotions. There is no doubt that some youngsters on this programme will become lifelong Saracens fans. A big well done to all the staff and volunteers who clearly work so hard on this.’

This was the second year for the Innovation Award, which celebrates a new community programme that deals innovatively with a community’s social (and other) needs, and for the second year Bristol Rugby won, this time for its ‘Bright Sparks’ programme. ‘Bright Sparks’ is designed to help educational establishments which have chronic issues with absenteeism and truancy. The judges were impressed by the way the programme addressed a clear need in schools, with clear goals and measurable results.

The third Individual programme award is the Impact Award, which celebrates an established programme that is clearly able to demonstrate the positive impact it’s made on a particular issue (such as health or fitness) or on a particular community. This year’s award was given to Worcester Warriors for their ‘npower Tag’ programme which is aimed at children with special needs giving them the opportunity to learn and participate in sport. The judges were impressed by the programme’s scale and by Worcester’s well-developed overall strategy for achieving community goals.

Congratulations to the winners and best of luck to the shortlisted clubs (Northampton Saints, Saracens and Worcester Warriors) will be presenting their work to the final judging panel at Parliament next week.