‘Together We Did’: Alliance of Sport marks 10 years of collective impact in sport and criminal justice

This year’s International Day of Sport for Development and Peace – which is led by the United Nations and takes place on 6th April each year – holds special relevance for the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice (AoS).

This is because 2025 marks 10 years since the Alliance of Sport was born thanks to support from long-term partners Comic Relief and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

AoS’ predecessor, the 2nd Chance Project, was created to enhance support for young people leaving custody through sport, building on the Sport Academy model that James Mapstone had developed with his team in HMP&YOI Ashfield. In 2009, it expanded to HMYOI Portland as part of the Sky TV series ‘Football Behind Bars’ starring football legend Ian Wright, and in the same year James was able to recruit Justin Coleman. “Justin was – and still is – the best around, and I knew that if 2nd Chance was going to be successful, we needed him on the team,” says James.

Yet despite the growing body of evidence that 2nd Chance had built, its progress had always faced hurdles due to a general misunderstanding of sport’s role in criminal justice and a gap in cross-sector coordination. During 2014, James was locked in discussions with funding partner Comic Relief about opportunities for innovation which could address this issue and help to advance this nascent sector. During these discussions, it was noted how many of the other projects that the funder was supporting regularly cited 2nd Chance as a source of training and support.

UNDERSTANDING

Alongside this, the general lack of understanding between the sports and criminal justice systems had became a recurring theme. Justin recalls how, during a Prisoners Learning Alliance event at The Open University in Milton Keynes, he was presenting alongside the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance. “A senior representative from the Ministry of Justice was attending, and he told me ‘I know all about art, but I want to know more about what sport can do’.”

It became increasingly evident that this nascent sector needed a ‘go to’ hub and so, with support and funding from Comic Relief and NOMS (National Offender Management Service, which became HMPPS in 2017) , and with government leaders acknowledging its sectoral contributions, the National Alliance of Sport for the Desistance of Crime (NASDC) was born in 2015.

The initial project was exploratory – “It wasn’t necessarily expected to last!” says James – and aimed at understanding the need and the opportunity for a more strategic body in this space. Organisations working to reduce reoffending and prevent crime could join NASDC network for free, and access support including signposting, training, news and toolkits. An extensive range of organisations across England and Wales joined up, from national bodies and charities to smaller, community-centred projects and programmes that were aiding desistance journeys by working within and across criminal justice and ‘through the gate’ (helping offenders reintegrate into communities).

To guide project delivery, a steering group of key organisations was set up. This featured 2nd Chance, the Ministry of Justice, NOMS (before it became HMPPS), Youth Justice Board, Public Health England, Unicef, Clinks, Family Lives, Comic Relief, New Philanthropy Capital, EFL Trust, Beyond Sport, the University of Gloucestershire, Royal Holloway University, Active Communities Network, Prisoners’ Education Trust, Tanayah Sam Associaties, Sported and StreetGames, One of the first tasks agreed by the group was to co-create a sector-wide Theory of Change (ToC) to help stakeholders better understand the role of sport in supporting the desistance from crime. Justin reflects: “We are proud that this ToC is still used and referenced today as a foundation for many in the sector.”

SUPPORT

By 2018, NASDC had indeed become the ‘go to’ for community organisations, justice services, academics and government departments. Its work was recognised by a Beyond Sport award which aligned it to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). James recalls: “We were consistently being told by key partners and stakeholders that the Alliance of Sport was needed, and had a bigger role to play – but it had to be strategic, and not delivery. So we stopped delivering and, with additional support from Comic Relief, founded the charity that is now AoS.” Thus James was appointed Chief Executive of AoS, and Justin became Chief Operating Officer.

Since registering as a charity in 2019, AoS’ work has grown significantly in the UK through partnerships with NHS England, the Ministry of Justice and Sport England, and thanks to grants from incredible supporters such as Comic Relief, the John Armitage Charitable Trust and the London Marathon Foundation. Since 2021 it has acted a Secretariat for the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on Sport and Physical Activity in the Criminal Justice System. Further afield, it has worked with the Thailand Institute of Justice and UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and – over the coming months and years – will help to oversee the groundbreaking new Southeast Asia Sport and Youth Crime Prevention Initiative alongside the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Upshot and many other international, regional and local stakeholders across Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile across the UK, its growing network of 1000 multi-agency professionals continues to work collaboratively to share learning and good practice, improve how things are done, and create better outcomes for vulnerable individuals and communities facing complex challenges. Here in the UK and overseas, AoS unites and empowers professionals, builds a robust body of evidence, and advocates through policy development initiatives and campaigns to promote healthier lives and safer communities both in the UK and internationally. Its vision is for a just world where the transformative power of physical activity and sport is universally understood and adopted in plans for building a safer, healthier and fairer world.

The need has never been more urgent, especially as society wakes up to the crisis amongst adolescent boys, social media, misogyny and serious youth violence. As George Barrow, a member of the original NASDC Steering Group and previously of the Ministry of Justice, reflects: “It’s always been accepted that sport and physical activity should be part of a healthy lifestyle – for physical and mental health – but it’s consistently been something that prisoners and people under community supervision have been locked out of.

TRANSFORMATIVE

“The tragedy is the right leaders, facilities and organisations are largely there, it just needs someone to show how it’s done and to wire up the right connections, like the Alliance of Sport.”

So as we reflect on our journey since those transformative events 10 years ago, and as we look ahead to an exciting new era of growth and development, we’d like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who continues to contribute to the network. Genuinely we can say, ‘Together We Did’.

Find out more about the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2025.