CEO: Addressing common challenges can increase sport’s global contribution to crime prevention

The full impact and potential of sport’s role in crime prevention is being held back by “many of the same challenges” being experienced simultaneously in different locations around the world, according to the Chief Executive of the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice.

James Mapstone was speaking during one of two international conferences that the Alliance of Sport (AoS) contributed to during September, both advocating for the role of sport in building a more sustainable world. AoS is a charity at the forefront of harnessing the power of sport and physical activity to tackle crime and build safer, healthier and more resilient communities.

STRENGTHEN

Between September 16 to 18, James contributed in person to a roundtable at the two-day Leeds Summit on Community Sport for Development and Diplomacy, before presenting on ‘Industry insights in Systems Approaches in Sport for Development’ as part of the Sport Development Network’s 2025 Online Convention, which was co-hosted by The Commonwealth Secretariat.

The latter event was titled ‘Beyond 2030: Converging and collaborating to strengthen sport’s contribution to sustainable development’. James was one of six expert speakers discussing how, with only 18% of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals having been achieved, stakeholders can converge and collaborate more effectively over the next five years. More than 100 attendees listened in from around the world.

James’ intervention (which can be viewed above) focused on AoS’ groundbreaking work across the UK and Southeast Asia in convening policy-makers and practitioners to co-design better systems and build healthier, safer communities. His presentation included a series of “practical mechanisms” that could be adopted to support the process and build a “coalition of the willing”.

He told the Convention: “When you look at crime prevention through sport, many of the challenges are the same – regardless of where it is being delivered. We see siloed programmes, fragmented and short-term funding, too many KPIs pulling in different directions, and often limited cross-government data sharing. In other words, we are not set up as a system, but a system of systems developed independently.

GOVERNANCE

“To support change, we need leadership from justice and sport, and this doesn’t necessarily have to mean another layer of bureaucracy. From our experience, a co-owned governance spine with a light but firm structure can often be mobilised. It can provide accountability and direction, and build momentum.”

James also contributed to a panel discussion with his fellow speakers during the Convention.

• You can watch all of the speakers’ presentations here and read reflections from the Online Convention here from Dr Claire Jenkin, co-chair of the Sport Development Network.

At the Leeds Summit, James presented on AoS’ work across UK and Southeast Asia, alongside Sara Begg from Cricket Unites and Jason Morgan from Charlton Athletic Community Trust during a roundtable moderated by Dr Simon Rofe from the University of Leeds.

In the context of how to build stronger relationships between policy and practice, so as to increase the value of community sport to a nation’s diplomatic efforts or ‘soft power’, James commented: “We know the importance of community organisations taking the lead in how they respond to local challenges. Our role is to ensure that activities and impact are mapped to a common indicator framework.

BALANCE

“We adopt a similar approach when partnering with governments across countries. Our role is often to help them build cross-sector networks, but it’s their network, and we always invite them to lead it. In many cases, they actively welcome additional support and want us to drive the process alongisde them. That means we often need to be deeply involved at the start, but also know when it comes to step back and let them shape the direction that’s right for their context. Ultimately it’s about understanding what the balance looks like and how we can bring people together.”

Attendees at the Summit also contributed to the co-creation of The Leeds Declaration, a collective vision and set of principles for community sport’s role in building inclusive, resilient communities and its potential to contribute to international development and diplomacy. It will be published shortly here.

• Read about Leeds Summit on Community Sport for Development and Diplomacy.
• Read about Sport Development Network’s 2025 Online Convention.

Pic credit: Leeds Hyde Park FC.