With the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games just around the corner, we are delighted to launch our first community report ‘Building a Legacy – Community Engagement at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park’.
Since announcing plans for the Park in 2014, the ambition has always been to deliver an Olympic legacy through the four themes of Sport, Community, Environment and Economy by creating impacts that will leave a legacy long into the future.
A decade down the line, the Park has grown around the existing venues of the English Institute of Sport Sheffield and iceSheffield, and is now home to further first class sports facilities, exceptional education establishments, world leading research centres, a medical diagnostic centre and a thriving business community.
The impact the Park has on the local community is an important aspect of the legacy and the reason we work hard to connect and collaborate with Park partners and local community organisations to support and enhance the wonderful work they do.
From long established community programmes, such as those delivered by Sheffield City Trust and Sheffield Sharks which support thousands of participants every year, to newer initiatives including the junior parkrun and the Westfield Health Active Space, the Park offers a range of inclusive and accessible activities for all ages and abilities.
We are particularly proud to have grown the inaugural ‘Olympic Legacy in Action’ community day into a city wide annual event bringing thousands of people to the Park to participate in free sports and physical activity taster sessions. This would not have been possible without the collaboration and commitment of over 25 partner organisations, in particular Move More Sheffield, Sheffield City Trust, Sheffield City Council and Westfield Health.
In 2023, through the generosity of a number of Park partners, we were able to launch the ‘Legacy Fund’ – a grant giving programme supporting local community organisations to deliver activities and events to promote physical and mental health and wellbeing and reduce social isolation. Administered by South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation, the Legacy Fund has so far supported 26 organisations to deliver a wide range of impactful initiatives within the local community.
The community is also seeing real time health and wellbeing benefits through research taking place at the Park. Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre is delivering innovative programmes like ‘Active Together’, for patients undergoing cancer treatment, and ‘Active Wait’ for those awaiting orthopaedic surgery, and has already benefitted hundreds of people. It also offers the opportunity for community engagement in research projects through the ‘Public Involvement in Research’ programme.
The Park also offers exceptional education opportunities. UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park provides state-of-the-art facilities for students to gain technical qualifications in Computing, Sport Science, and Health Sciences and works with a wide range of top employers and university partners to provide the workforce of the future with the skills required to meet demand in these areas.
Although not an exhaustive list of everything that happens in and round the Park, we hope this report offers an insight into the level of community engagement activity taking place. Our aim is to highlight the positive impacts made to date and our commitment to building an even greater legacy in the future.
For more information on the report, or to discuss opportunities to get involved, contact claire.fretwell@olympiclegacypark.co.uk
