More than 10,000 inactive young Londoners have taken part in physical activity since April 2015 in projects funded by Sportivate, Sport England’s £56m youth engagement programme.

Overall, 21,378 capital-dwellers aged 14 and 25 have been involved with activities over the past 12 months (11,378 were already deemed to be active), exceeding the initial target of 15,200 in January 2016.

Working in collaboration with support network London Sport, Sport England maximised its reach, particularly among hard-to-reach groups, by signposting projects and prioritising funding for inactive groups.

Indeed, more than 60 per cent of the 21,378 participants were female, while 58 per cent were from non-white backgrounds – traditionally groups which have lower than average physical activity participation levels.

In addition, London Sport was able to provide all projects involved with marketing tools aimed at particular groups, specifically targeted to youngsters who were either uninterested, functionally interested or positive about physical activity.

Unconventional sports and delivery methods were also used to try and stimulate activity in hard-to-reach areas of society. For example, an online yoga platform was trialled which allowed coaches to reach participants through a streaming service.

“To reach this milestone, particularly engaging over 10,000 previously inactive young people, has been a fantastic effort, but we are still aware that there is more work to do to ensure that physical activity and sport are embedded into young Londoners’ everyday lives,” said Chris Anderson, London Sport youth participation manager.

London Sport has an overarching target of getting one million more Londoners active by 2020.

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