From Good Projects to Lasting Change
Why we need to invest in the systems that help effective work grow
Over the past 18 years, I have seen first-hand the difference that sport and physical activity can make to people’s lives.
Across the UK and internationally, dedicated organisations are using sport to engage young people, improve health and wellbeing, support rehabilitation and strengthen communities. Many are doing exceptional work, often with limited resources and in challenging circumstances.
These projects matter. They build trust, create opportunities and deliver meaningful change for individuals and communities.
But if we want that impact to last and grow, funding good projects is only part of the answer.
We also need to invest in the systems that connect them.
Good work is happening — but too often in isolation
One of the recurring challenges across sport, justice and community safety is not a shortage of good ideas or committed people.
The challenge is fragmentation.
Projects can operate in isolation from one another. Funding is often short term. Learning may remain within individual organisations. Evidence is gathered in different ways. Practitioners do not always have the opportunity to influence the decisions that shape future policy and investment.
As a result, valuable work can remain localised and vulnerable.
This does not mean we should invest less in frontline delivery. Quite the opposite.
It means we should think more carefully about the infrastructure around it.
If we want effective projects to become stronger, reach more people and contribute to long-term change, we need to invest in the relationships, evidence and coordination that help good work travel further.
Complex challenges require joined-up responses
Youth crime, violence, reoffending and community safety are complex issues. They are shaped by a wide range of interconnected factors, including family relationships, peer groups, neighbourhood conditions, education, health, employment, poverty, trauma, access to positive opportunities and the environments in which people grow up.
The people around us matter. The places we spend time matter. The opportunities we are exposed to matter.
Young people are influenced by their friends, families, schools, communities and the wider culture around them. Where environments are affected by deprivation, exclusion, violence or a lack of opportunity, the risks can be greater. Equally, where young people have access to trusted adults, positive peer networks, safe spaces and meaningful opportunities, their chances of thriving are stronger.
No single organisation can address these challenges alone.
That means bringing together the organisations delivering activity, the public services supporting individuals and communities, the researchers building the evidence base, and the institutions responsible for policy and investment.
The aim is not to replace local projects or impose a single model.
The aim is to create the conditions in which effective local work can flourish as part of a wider system.
What a systems approach looks like
A systems approach starts by recognising that delivery and infrastructure must be developed together.
Frontline organisations need the resources to run high-quality programmes. But they also benefit from being part of something bigger: a shared ambition, a network of partners, opportunities to learn from others and a clear route for their experience to influence wider decisions.
In practice, this means investing in:
- a shared vision for change;
- strong partnerships across sectors;
- opportunities for practitioners to learn from one another;
- consistent approaches to evidence and evaluation;
- support to strengthen organisational capacity;
- meaningful engagement with policymakers and funders;
- and a strategy for aligning future investment.
These elements are not an alternative to delivery.
They help delivery achieve more.
The importance of the work between the projects
Some of the most important work in a collective impact programme is not always the most visible.
It is the work between the projects.
It is bringing partners together around a common purpose. It is creating space for honest discussion about what is working and what needs to improve. It is helping organisations develop their skills and knowledge. It is gathering evidence and turning learning into practical insight. It is connecting frontline experience with the people making decisions about policy and investment.
This role is sometimes described as the backbone function.
A strong backbone organisation does not control the partnership or take credit for the work of others. Its role is to help organisations achieve more together than they could independently.
Without this coordination, even excellent projects can remain disconnected.
With it, individual programmes can contribute to a stronger and more sustainable movement for change.
Learning from our experience
This thinking has shaped the work of the Alliance of Sport.
In the UK, we have worked with practitioners, policymakers, researchers and funders to strengthen the role of sport and physical activity within the criminal justice system and wider community-safety agenda.
Our experience has shown us that good practice alone does not automatically lead to systems change.
It needs to be connected.
Practitioners need opportunities to share learning. Decision-makers need access to credible evidence. Organisations need support to strengthen their work. Funders need confidence that investment is contributing to a wider ambition.
Our work in Southeast Asia has reinforced this further.
Initiated by the Agence Française de Développement and the International Olympic Committee, the Southeast Asia Sport and Youth Crime Prevention Initiative is supporting organisations in Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to use sport as a tool for preventing youth crime and building safer and more resilient communities.
The initiative includes investment in local delivery. But it also goes further.
It is helping to strengthen national networks, build organisational capacity, develop shared learning and evidence, connect partners across countries and engage with institutions at a regional level.
This is important because long-term impact will not come from simply replicating one project in different locations.
It will come from building a stronger ecosystem: one that values local expertise, learns from practice and creates the conditions for effective approaches to grow.
A broader approach to investment
For governments, funders and institutions, the question is not whether to invest in projects or systems.
We need to invest in both.
Frontline delivery is where relationships are built and lives are changed. Systems investment creates the conditions for that work to become stronger, more connected and more sustainable.
When designing a new programme or funding opportunity, we should therefore ask:
- How will local organisations be supported to deliver high-quality work?
- How will partners learn from one another?
- How will evidence be gathered and shared?
- How will frontline experience influence policy and investment?
- Who will coordinate the wider programme?
- How will the work continue to grow beyond the initial funding period?
These questions help us move from a collection of projects to a more connected and strategic approach.
Building lasting change together
Sport and physical activity can make a powerful contribution to safer, healthier and fairer communities.
But lasting change requires more than isolated interventions.
It requires good projects and strong systems.
It requires local expertise and strategic coordination.
It requires frontline delivery and long-term investment.
Most importantly, it requires organisations, funders and institutions to work together around a shared ambition.
By investing in the infrastructure that helps good work connect, improve and grow, we can ensure that successful projects do not remain isolated examples.
They can become part of a wider movement for lasting change.