Community sports projects and effective community empowerment: a case study in Rochdale

Abstract

How can community empowerment be most effectively achieved through the use of sport? In a case study of a bespoke voluntary sector project, an action research approach revealed insights into effective community empowerment. Although focused on a comparatively small project within a provincial UK town, the issues addressed and lessons learned can be generalised and transferred much more universally to community-based sports delivery. Detached from mainstream providers, and more agile and responsive to local needs, the project succeeded in achieving a very local degree of ownership and control. The study revealed the limitations of much mainstream provision and some of the sustainability vulnerabilities of small-scale projects, with funding dependencies in delivering broader structural change. The project challenged many of the values and approaches of its larger statutory neighbours and signified exemplary good practice. It demonstrated how to achieve sustainable community development despite its own funding being in jeopardy. And it further challenged its statutory neighbours to consider adopting its practices, investing in the project's long-term future or presiding over its eventual demise.