The Sport and Recreation Alliance has been shortlisted for a 2015 Public Affairs Award.
Under the Best Trade Body Campaign of the Year category, the Alliance has been shortlisted for its work around the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation.
The Charter, which launched at the Oval in March saw the Alliance and the Professional Players Federation, alongside 23 national governing bodies, pledge to tackle the stigma of mental ill-health in sport as well as encourage the sector to work together to create best-practice procedures to help organisations better understand the issues around mental ill-health.
The launch event garnered nationwide support and coverage, with the Charter seeing over 50 additional organisations become signatories within the first 48 hours.
Following the launch, there has been further work undertaken alongside the mental health charity Mind, to ensure that sport and recreation is on track to become increasingly open and pro-active when it comes to supporting mental wellbeing.
This work led to the SportMinds event taking place at Wembley Stadium in October, where a large number of Charter signatories came together to share their work and stories on mental health. This event also saw the announcement that the Charter itself had been signed by more than 200 organisations.
Sport and Recreation Alliance Head of Communications, James Stibbs, believes that being shortlisted is just reward for a campaign which has quickly found its mark.
“The Mental Health Charter is something we’re very proud of here at the Alliance. The key to its success is that so many people have taken it to heart and have embraced it. We’ve managed to create a community of people who really believe in the power of sport to tackle mental ill-health and they have run with it.”
Award winners will be announced on 10 December.
