Impact case study database

A key driver of the impact has been the relationship between the University of Central Lancashire’s International Football Institute and the National Football Museum (NFM) [A]. This applies especially to the impact related activities of Adams and Hughson. Dr Adams’s main direct impact activity in connection with the National Football Museum was in a consultancy capacity to the major exhibition The Greater Game: Football & the First World War (19 December 2014 – 13 September 2015) [B]. In this capacity, Adams consulted on potential artefacts and delivered a workshop to the staff before the NFM major exhibition. Several of the exhibition cases carried quotes and information attributed to Adams and a quote from him was writ large on the wall above the section dedicated to the Christmas Truces. He was individually mentioned on the acknowledgements board at the exit of the exhibition. His research was used to inform the publication, The Greater Game: A History of Football in World War I (Oxford, Shire Publications, 2014), which accompanied the exhibition. Furthermore, Adams wrote a play, titled A Game for Christmas, which has been used as a teaching resource in primary schools at no cost. The play was made available to schools via Learning and Resources pages of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and the resources website of the National Children's Football Alliance (NCFA) [C]. It was also performed, several times, at the National Football Museum during The Greater Game: Football & the First World War exhibition. The play was also performed in a radio version during the two-week ‘Celebrate Sport’ event, which was held by the BBC at Media City UK. This radio version of A Game for Christmas was recorded and disseminated to schools. HRH The Duke of Cambridge, a supporter of the project, remarked:

“We all grew up with the story of soldiers from both sides putting down their arms on Christmas Day, and it remains wholly relevant today as a message of hope over adversity, even in the bleakest of times.” [C]

Adams’s research [3-6] has also been used in other broadcast and print media, public talks and events, to disseminate knowledge to the general public and specialist audiences in promoting discussion and debate about football during WWI. Broadcast media include BBC World Service (global listenership of 150 million per week) Sportshour programme and podcast [D], BBC Radio Lancashire’s Drive Time, BBC Radio 5 Live’s The Daily Interview, and Radio Hochstift in Sennelager, Germany. Adams’s research has been cited in numerous British national and local newspapers as well as the international media (e.g. The Times, The Independent, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail, The Warrington Guardian). A number of public and specialist talks have been delivered including five at the National Football Museum. Adams gave two public talks at The National Archives, Kew (available by podcast) [E, F] and presented a paper at the Ministry of Information Press Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. On 9 December 2014, Adams delivered the ‘Daily Briefing’ to the officers of the 20^th Armoured Infantry Brigade at Sennelager before the playing of a commemorative football game. In other school related activities, Adams conducted workshops and gave presentations at several local schools, including Cheetham Primary School, Manchester (19 November 2014) and John Cross Primary School, Bilsborrow (24 February 2015).

Adams was invited to appear at the BBC World War One: The Home Front roadshow at Blackpool and Blackburn on the 21 and 24 June 2014. The BBC estimated the audiences across the two days at approximately 3,000 people. Adams was a contributing consultant historian to the British Library on the WWI pan-European ‘Europeana 1914-1918’ project. He was also a contributing historian on the British Council/Premier League/FA ‘Football Remembers’ project [G]. In relation to this project, an education pack was developed and distributed to 30,000 British schools and mass participation events were organised by the British Embassy network around the world. Adams consulted on the staging of a centennial commemorative football game between British and German army units at Sennelager, Germany in December 2014. The game was attended by thousands of soldiers from both armies and several thousand civilians. Each spectator was given a souvenir programme, which included a page overview authored by Adams about how and why football was played in ‘no man’s land’ on the Front during Christmas of 1914. This page was provided in both English and German.

The Football Association (The FA) invited sculptor Andrew Edwards to create a monument to mark the occasion [H]. Edwards approached the National Football Museum for information about the football played on the Front by the troops in 1914 and Adams was, in turn, invited to consult Edwards on preparation of the art item. A full size bronze was unveiled on 22 December 2015 in Messines Town Square, Belgium on a site identified by Adams as in close proximity to a possible game of football between the 6/Cheshires and their German opponents as briefly described in Lt. Brockbank’s diary exhibited at The Greater Game: Football & the First World War. A modified resin full-size statue was displayed at St Luke’s (“The Bombed-Out Church”) in Liverpool from December 14 to 21, 2014 and then at the Christmas Carol Concert at the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. Internationally, the resin statue was also displayed on the site of the former truce in no man’s land in Belgium on Christmas Day 2014, and the following day at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium [I]. It was also shown at several football grounds to raise awareness and funds for a permanent memorial. The ‘Football Remembers’ project has impacted WW1 veteran football players and young academy footballers through the veterans sharing their experiences of the war and football during the war [G].

As Director of the International Football Institute, Professor Hughson has worked closely with the National Football Museum to ensure the museums interpretations are accessible and appealing whilst being informed by high level curatorial scholarship and expertise [J]. Hughson drew on his published research [2] on the painting Any Wintry Afternoon in England by the British artist C.R.W. Nevinson to advise the National Football Museum to seek a loan of the artwork from its owning institution, the Manchester City Art Gallery. Accordingly, Hughson was involved in discussions regarding the loan with senior staff at both the National Football Museum and the Manchester City Art Gallery. The loan went ahead, and the painting was displayed at the National Football Museum, with key object status, from October 2013 to October 2014. While the painting was on display at the National Football Museum, Hughson gave a number of presentations to the public and provided expert commentary in an educational video made in situ at the National Football Museum in front of the painting. This video was made available as an educational resource to schools. Hughson’s discussion addressed the ‘football and war’ theme regarding Nevinson’s intention in the painting and in regard to subsequent interpretations of the artwork.

Melling's research from the 1990s to the present day on the Dick, Kerr Ladies [1] football team informed the 2017 Channel 4 television documentary, ‘When Football Banned Women’, presented by broadcaster Clare Balding [K, L]. By collaborating with the acclaimed and award-winning Lambert Productions, Channel 4, Jean Williams, Gail Newsham, and Clare Balding CBE, Professor Melling was able to bring the debate over the 1921 FA ban on women’s football into the wider public domain. ‘When Football Banned Women’ received 500,000 ‘hits’ on the first night of screening, and many more via playback, social media, and the national press. Balding noted, during her narration of the documentary, that many of the young women players today had no concept of the game’s history or the struggles their predecessors experienced. This media collaboration therefore acts not only as a vehicle of information, but also as an important tool of informal education around sport, gender and politics. Furthermore, the documentary utilises Melling’s research in understanding the political connotations associated with the FA’s ban on women’s football, highlighting the change of women’s football from fundraising for charities to supporting war-wounded families to focusing on supporting the striking miners. Women’s football and sport journalist, Suzanne Wrack highlights that “With the war over, their fundraising turned to support for workers in struggle, and in particular for the striking miners. “You had women playing football and striking miners, and huge crowds watching them. The whole thing was revolutionary,” says Dr Melling” [M]. Wrack describes the documentary as “Inspiring, moving and analytical.” [M] In May 2019, the British Library hosted a screening of the documentary, followed by a public debate chaired by Clare Balding [L].

The annual prevalence of patellofemoral pain (PFP) in the general population is estimated to be around 23%. No standardised treatment for PFP exists, therefore physiotherapy treatment varies widely and comprises of a mixed package, or multimodal approach, which is delivered on a trial-and-error basis and leads to poor outcomes, with 90% of people reporting pain for at least four years following diagnosis. Our work demonstrates a paradigm shift by identifying specific patient sub-groups using six low cost, quick and simple clinical assessments requiring minimal equipment. This allows clinicians to identify subgroups and therefore provide targeted interventions for specific presentations, with the goal of improving patient outcomes in those unresponsive to treatment.

In order to implement the subgrouping, the app “Appatella” was developed [A]. This offers a direct link with our subgrouping algorithm without the need for complex calculations and incorporates instructions on how to perform the clinical assessments without the need for additional training. Appatella is a GDPR compliant, digital clinical tool available in both Android and Apple iOS formats, which consists of three main components. Firstly, a clinician interface, which allows subgrouping to guide treatment decision-making through the algorithm. Secondly, a clinician/patient interface which delivers clinical interventions, including outcome measures and reminders. Finally, a web-based database tool for clinicians and researchers that allows the creation and storage of clinical interventions with outcome measures. This uses a variety of media which can be deployed and implemented through the mobile app. The feedback received to date shows that clinicians recognise the subgroups and strongly support the need to develop a quick and simple system to allocate patients to these subgroups [B, C]. Since 2018 the beta version of Appatella has been downloaded by over 1,000 clinicians across 30 countries and is due to be released fully in late 2020. This will facilitate the assessment and subgrouping as well as the delivery of targeted treatments for this problematic condition.

In 2015 we presented the concept of a “ladder of intervention” for musculoskeletal knee problems at the World Confederation for Physical Therapy. This led to the development of the concept of assessing four key factors: Pain, Alignment, Strength and Stability (PASS). Our work has shown there are a number of interventions that can have a positive effect on all these factors. These include functional and proprioceptive knee bracing which we have demonstrated can help patients with Patellofemoral Pain, Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries and knee Osteoarthritis [1,2,4,5]. The PASS concept has gained considerable clinical and commercial interest and has been incorporated into the marketing strategy for DJO inc., one of the largest providers of medical devices and services in the world [D]. We have had a significant impact on practitioners through over 200 invited talks to clinical groups, sports clubs, companies and academic groups in over 30 different countries across six continents since 2013, and a series of YouTube videos which have been viewed over 15,000 times [E]. This has had a positive effect on the prescription of knee bracing; for example, a seminar tour by Professor Richards in New Zealand in 2018 resulted in a 23% increase in knee brace sales, indicating a change in clinical practice with an increase in the prescription of knee bracing, this was directly attributed to the presentation of our research findings and was described as “a direct and measurable positive impact on our business” by the New Zealand sales manager for DJO Global [F]. This has subsequently produced a “noticeable shift of treatment in the rehabilitation space towards the use of functional bracing to aid in the improvement of movement patterns, reduce pain and immobility secondary to fear avoidance” which has led to changes in New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) policy, which now funds the prescription of lower limb bracing through physiotherapy and podiatry [F]. This is a significant development that emphasises the acceptance of bracing as an important part of the rehabilitation process and a way to get people back to work in less time than without bracing. Furthermore, seminars by Richards across the Asia Pacific region between 2014-2020, which considered the prescription of bracing for knee instability, has influenced the management of over 50,000 patients across Southeast Asia and has been directly attributed to our work [B, C, D, G]. Additionally, in South Africa in 2019, Richards ran a similar seminar series. In a survey of approximately 300 delegates, 88% indicated they would be likely or very likely to change their clinical practice as a result of what they had learned.

Up until 2017, South Korea has used Plaster of Paris casting for treating ankle fractures. In 2017, our work on Orthotic Walkers was submitted as evidence along with nine other papers to the National Health Insurance system in South Korea to promote the use of Orthotic Walkers over traditional treatment methods [D, I]. As a result, these devices were approved for use in clinical practice which included financial reimbursement. Estimates based on sales indicate that around 20,000 patients per year, who would have been treated using Plaster of Paris casting, are now been treated using Orthotic Walkers, which have been shown to provide a faster and more effective recovery [I]. In addition, our work features strongly in the marketing materials from DJO Inc., which has been used as marketing evidence on the efficacy of these devices [I]. DJO Inc. sell millions of these devices each year globally. These marketing materials are distributed to clinicians and consumers worldwide to help them make informed treatment choices.

Development of a framework for FEI certification

Following the London 2012 Olympics, the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), the world governing body for equestrian sports, initiated a footing project to continue the scientific work on surfaces that evolved from the games. Soon after, Hobbs was asked to take the lead in writing a white paper [A], based on her research [1]. For Hobbs this became a two-year project, as her vision for the paper was to provide a comprehensive resource for the equestrian community by combining current scientific knowledge with a framework from which surface standards could be developed. Together with an extensive review of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence welfare and performance [1], the white paper also included a review of existing and new surface testing methods [2], engineering definitions applied to surface testing, a certification framework and layman’s surface terminology for a new industry standard. The development of layman’s terms to describe the functional properties of surfaces was an important step towards certification, as scientific (objective) measurements could then be directly applied to layman’s terms, which provided a universal language of communication [B]. In 2014, the FEI made the white paper freely available to the worldwide equestrian community as a reference and educational source. Examples of its reach and influence can be found globally (i.e. Canada, USA, Australia) to include over 40 independent articles that discuss and critique the information, concepts and proposed framework. For example, Norton (2015) concluded for Horse Sport magazine that:

**‘The Equine Surfaces White Paper discussed a great number of aspects that must be considered when discussing optimal footing. However, there are such large gaps in our knowledge that specific recommendations for each discipline can’t be made at this time. The authors hope by educating trainers and riders as to how surface conditions affect the biomechanical performance of our horses, injuries can be prevented.**’ [C]

Producing protocols for the certification process

The FEI began a consultation process with industry following the launch of the white paper, with Hobbs as one of the main scientific advisors [D]. To progress the development of protocols, one study focused on defining acceptable thresholds for field based, objective measurements of show jumping competition surfaces [4], whilst other studies [2, 3] were used to inform the inclusion of laboratory-based tests and the development of surface maintenance procedures. The scientific work in [4] also raised awareness of surface terminology and function in the 198 riders taking part in nine elite competitions at six European venues. In 2016-17 Hobbs and St George were commissioned by the FEI to develop a complete set of protocols for surface certification. The protocols were underpinned by the scientific work and comprised of 38 separate documents in total. The in-situ protocols were piloted at the Olympic Games and the World Equestrian Games (WEG) (France, Brazil and USA). The materials and track-in-a-box protocols that were developed were used in the selection process for the tenders submitted for the Tokyo Olympic surface. The in-situ protocols were used at the Tokyo test event and will be used at the Olympic Games in 2021 [D]. The in-situ protocol has recently been adapted for an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard (F3400-19) and the suite of materials, track-in-a-box and certification protocols are currently under consideration by voting members of the ASTM. The benefits of measuring surfaces to a defined standard for events, horses and riders was highlighted at Tryon, USA (WEG 2018). Prior to the WEG, three horses fell during competition in the main arena [E]. After extensive testing, a new main arena and surface were proposed and used for the games, which was hailed as a huge success. Implementation of the certification process on a wider scale was agreed by the Footing Standards Working Group in April 2019 [D]. They proposed that all 5* competitions (Approximately 90 worldwide/year) should have in-situ surface certification at the start of each competition. This recommendation is awaiting FEI approval by the Jumping Committee and the General Assembly and will result in a rule change if approved. In addition, the Working Group recommended that surface providers are given the opportunity to have their products FEI certified using the materials testing and track-in-a-box testing protocols. Surface evaluation using functional properties terminology is also embedded into the new FEI Event Classification system [D] that is designed to ensure that standards are maintained at all FEI competitions. Test results and surface evaluations are already influencing perception of acceptable surfaces and of maintenance practices, with practitioners more commonly favouring softer, well cushioned surfaces. Ultimately, this will reduce injury risk for the horse, as hard surfaces are a contributory factor in the development of overuse injuries (2).

Increasing awareness of factors that influence horse health, welfare and performance

Increasing awareness of intrinsic and extrinsic factors beyond the white paper that can impact on the health and performance of horses is also a key driver for the University of Central Lancashire’s equine research team. In order to increase the reach of our work, a day of workshops were produced so that the footage and presentations could be used as part of the launch of the FEI Campus, a free educational website, targeted towards the international equestrian community [F]. The FEI Campus was launched in 2017 and by March 2018 it had already attracted 15,541 visitors (3,117 registered members) worldwide who had engaged with the learning materials which included all four presentations from the workshops [F]. The University of Central Lancashire’s contribution included research work on asymmetry [6] and balance [5] in horses and further dissemination of the proposed equipment and techniques to be used for equestrian surface certification [A][2]. A key element of embedding new knowledge that will benefit horse welfare is through our work with scientific practitioners. Hobbs supervised the doctoral research of Dr Simon Curtis, Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Farriers. Since successfully graduating, Curtis has visited 15 different countries in Europe, North and South America, Australasia and Asia to date, to present the work to over 2000 farriers, vets and breeders. The research includes techniques developed in [6] on asymmetric hoof growth, foot balance, loading patterns and hoof distortion.

In March 2018, Curtis was acknowledged for his efforts, receiving the Colin Spedding Award from HRH Princess Anne at the National Equine Forum. The impact of his work in influencing practice was captured in a survey in 2018 [G], showing that his dissemination of the research had reached practitioners from every continent. From the survey, 95.7% of 516 respondents reported that Curtis’ research has positively influenced their knowledge, skills development and/ or practice within the equine industry. An example of the impact of his research is illustrated by this quote from the Programme Manager of BYS Farrier School in Sweden.

‘Simon's study means a lot to our development work on hoof care, correction of foals and various working methods within the hoof care sector in Sweden. His thesis is also of great importance for our future breeding work.’ [G].

Educating students and practitioners on aspects of equine locomotion and their demands on the musculoskeletal system of the horse from our research findings [1, 2, 5, 6] is a priority for the research team. Along with the workshops and seminars given by the research team, Hobbs’ collaborator Hilary Clayton (Michigan State University), a scientist, vet, dressage trainer and Grand Prix rider also disseminates our collaborative research [5] to the equestrian community to aid improvements in training practice [H]. This includes an annual presentation to judges at the US Dressage Federation Convention and many workshops and training sessions worldwide. Our research is embedded in equine science course curriculums at a local, national and international level [I] providing enhanced knowledge and understanding to current and future equine practitioners. Our methods of calculating moments around the centre of mass and then using them to investigate balance and locomotion [5] also has reach beyond the gaits performed by sports horses. A member of the Mongolian ambling horse federation remarked on using these techniques to investigate the ‘Usan telmen’ gait:

‘I truly inspired by your work which the techniques that used in these studies and logic explanations, result are sufficient to understand and explore the behavior of other gaits too.’ [I]

One of the keys to reaching stakeholders globally is using gold open access journals, which Hobbs and Clayton have prioritised wherever possible [5, 6]. This allows further dissemination to occur through lay article reviews and helps to spread important messages originating from the scientific work as widely as possible, such as the messages in [5] highlighted by HorseTalk, New Zealand:

‘Given the complexities involved, it is not surprising that some horses fail to learn the biomechanical skills necessary for passage….Researchers Hilary Clayton and Sarah Jane Hobbs… writing in the journal PeerJ, said the slow speed of passage challenged the horse’s ability to control the sagittal-plane moments around the center of mass.’ [H].

Awareness of equine surface testing and surface standards for show jumping competitions has already made an impression on equestrian practitioners within the sport of eventing. Eventing is primarily performed on turf surfaces, which can vary considerably in their functional properties. Course designers, organisers, riders and other practitioners within eventing have recognised the benefits in having a quantifiable description of the ‘going’ prior to an event, particularly for the cross-country phase [J]. Cross-country courses are undulating and up to approximately 6.8 km in length, which limits the possibility of using identical equipment and methods to those used in show jumping competitions at all but the highest level. As such, Hobbs and Graydon, together with ex-junior team British Eventing (BE) veterinarian Mark Lucey, and colleagues from Nottingham Trent University, tested 26 affiliated BE courses with a range of surface measuring devices over the 2019 eventing season in the UK. The results from this initial work are driving the establishment of standard methods and equipment for measuring cross country turf surfaces in the future. This work has already been highly praised by stakeholders, such as Philip Herbert (accredited BE course designer):

‘Thank you and all of your team for this most comprehensive report. I am most impressed with the trouble you have gone to and the amount of data you have recorded. You will be most welcome to come to Burghley, at any time in the future and if you require any assistance from me, in my capacity as BE Ground Condition Adviser, do please get in touch. I wish you every success with this process in the future, I am sure it will be a valuable asset to equestrian sport.’ [J]

Development of a volunteer programme for sports mega-events

In 2010, Melling was contracted by the 2014 Winter Olympic Committee to create the blueprint and preparation training programme for Olympic Volunteer Centres within 26 Russian universities [A]. Volunteer Centres within universities was a new concept for the Russian Federation and there was little knowledge around the recruitment, management and support of volunteers. Melling worked with Sochi Organising committee for the Olympic Games to identify appropriate institutions and using the ‘action learning toolkit’ [2, 3] and peer leadership programme model [4] they co-created a training programme to ensure standards of excellence in volunteer management. For the first time in the history of the Olympic movement, selecting and training Games volunteers was carried out through Volunteer Centres based at educational institutions throughout the country. The programme formalised volunteering within the Russian Federation through the engagement of 27,000 volunteers and was one of the most important outcomes of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Official International Olympic Committee (IOC) Report on Sochi 2014 Vol two stated:

"The Sochi 2014 Games helped revive volunteerism in Russia and brought it to a completely new level of development. The Sochi 2014 Volunteer Programme could be called one of the most important elements of the Games legacy." [B]

The benefits of the programme also had far reaching impact on the lives of Russian people beyond the Games: “When Sochi began the bidding process in 2005, the concept of volunteering simply did not exist in Russia,” explains Dmitry Chernyshenko, President and CEO of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee. “Now, the volunteer movement is thriving, with a quarter of a million Russians regularly participating in volunteer activity.” [C]

Further to Melling’s contribution to the Sochi 2014 Volunteer Centre concept, the CVCL was also consulted on the development of a volunteer legacy programme for the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Moscow. The University of Central Lancashire signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Moscow State Social University and Melling collaborated with former Head of the Sochi 2014 Volunteer Programme, Anton Lopukhin, Acting Vice Rector of the Moscow State Social University, on the development of an inclusive legacy programme, which would create benefits for community projects around disability and social justice. Representatives from Moscow City Government then visited the University of Central Lancashire on a fact-finding mission to explore best practice in relation to mega-sports volunteering [D]. Using the Sochi model, 17,040 volunteers were recruited for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The media predicted that the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Moscow would be tarnished by racism and hooliganism. This did not happen. The World Cup was a success, where all visitors were made welcome and the game was characterised by friendliness. This was due in part to the culture of volunteerism built on an ethos of social inclusion. As Patrick Jennings from BBC Sport stated in 2018:

“In many ways, Russia was the perfect World Cup host. A vast country where there is so much to uncover. The organisation was superb, thanks in no small part to the thousands of volunteers who helped visitors get by.” [E]

Transforming lives through peer leadership

From 2014 to 2020 the work of the CVCL has created a network of student volunteer peer researchers and leaders delivering research-informed knowledge exchange within the UK, the Russian federation, Pakistan, Oman, and Zambia. Participants in this network have strong connections with international agencies and policymakers: Anaisa Baig from the University of Gujrat Centre for Civil Society was invited to represent Pakistan at the G(irls)8 Summit: Zuleikha Chikh, CVCL University of Central Lancashire, became Muslim Sports Leader of the Year, 2019 in the Muslim Women in Sports Powerlist: and Wajid Khan, University of Central Lancashire CVCL, became MEP for Northwest England and sits on the committee for Human Rights within the European Parliament. Chikh’s postgraduate research on women and leadership in sport is directly addressing IOC and UN SDG priorities regarding gender equality.

The Global Youth Solutions (GYS) peer leadership model developed by CVCL [4] has had an impact which has transcended Sochi 2014. In 2013 the GYS programme engaged with the University of Gujrat in Pakistan, resulting in an international student led conference in 2014, where students at the University of Gujrat co-created a conceptual university volunteer centre based on the Sochi model, with the mission of delivering peer research and leadership education addressing structural inequalities highlighted by the SDGs, including 10 Reduced Inequalities. This work led to the development of a new research Centre, the Centre for Civil Society within the University of Gujrat [F], which was ratified in 2014 by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Mohammad Nizamuddin, now the Head of the Pakistan Higher Education Commission. This resulted in a culture shift around formalised student volunteer knowledge exchange and peer-led research in the Gujrat Region of Pakistan. The GYS model was applied in Oman between 2014 and 2017, engaging 260 Omani Students as peer-research leaders. The programme resulted in a culture shift in volunteerism within Omani HEI’s and the development of a learning community of active volunteers. On the strength of this, Nizwa University forged a MoU with the University of Central Lancashire [G1, G2]. Closer to home, in 2014 the CVCL was approached by the Traveller Education Service to develop an educational inclusion project with the Traveller community in Preston. The GYS programme facilitators worked on the site with young people to deliver a story-telling project about Traveller sports, experience, culture, and how the young people saw their place in the world. In the spirit of Freirean pedagogy, representatives from the Traveller community have formed an ongoing dialogue with undergraduates, engaging on Traveller culture, rights, and social justice [H]. Collaborating with Traveller communities has richly informed research and pedagogical approaches, thus influencing emerging work with local communities high on the multiple deprivation index, such as Shadsworth, Blackburn with Darwen, East Lancashire, and Allerdale and Copeland District, West Cumbria.

Another recent example includes the GYS 2019 project ‘Letters from Lesvos’, where CVCL student peer researchers contributed to addressing the six United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) priorities for reform. Many unaccompanied refugee children had undertaken perilous journeys across the sea and experienced significant trauma before their arrival at Lesvos. This experience impacted on the children’s confidence and trust in humanity. The aim of the project was to co-create new knowledge with the children, thus supporting a positive change in the children’s world view and development of both self-advocacy and peer-advocacy. To operationalise the project, the GYS team developed strategic partnerships with UNHCR, related NGOs, and the University of the Aegean, whose staff and students collaborated on a FIFA initiated football skills programme for refugees with Barcelona FC. The real impacts, however, transcend the formal structures of policy and practice. The children benefited from the project in several ways, but the greatest change was in their world view through the knowledge that the University of Central Lancashire staff and students cared enough to share their skills. In 2019, one child said:

“Despite the war, we can see that good people exist in the world”; “You make us very happy.”. [I]

Sport as a mechanism for international dialogue

Since 2014, over 100 University of Central Lancashire student volunteers collaborated with Sport in Action, a Zambian sports non-governmental organization. This collaboration enabled peer leaders from Sport in Action to deliver life skills programmes in Kabwe and Lusaka, directly impacting the lives of over 3,500 young people [J]. Local schools have reported further impacts in terms of increased classroom attendance and educational engagement post intervention. Students with specialist skills in Media and Film production, Journalism and Publishing have helped to enhance the profile and consequently the impact of Sport in Action, nationally and internationally, by producing high quality marketing literature, YouTube trailers, video documentaries and publications. Furthermore, using a student mentoring approach [1, 5] Sports Coaching and Sport Studies students co-delivered the development and delivery of community activity and health programmes in Kabwe and Lusaka addressing HIV and Hepatitis B, impacting on the lives of approximately 1,000 individuals. Student volunteer Physiotherapists have maintained the development and delivery of short first aid and basic injury prevention workshops in partnership with Sport in Action Peer Leaders in Kabwe and worked on placements at the IOC Regional Development Centre in Lusaka. The impact of this has been the co creation of new health education programmes. Latterly, Sexual Health students have been based in Lusaka supporting the delivery of key sexual health education messages to young people and supporting the education of teachers and sports leaders. This activity impacted on 5000 individuals and its success has been demonstrated through increased dissemination of key messages. Sport in Action are now working with the University of Central Lancashire volunteer students on programmes on Gender Equality and combating violence towards young women.

The Centre Sauvegarde de l’Enfance d’Agadir is a Boys’ and Girls’ orphanage in Morocco whose purpose is to care for and support young people who have no family or have either been abandoned by their parents or referred to the Centre by the juridical court system. The Centre positively impacts the lives of hundreds of children throughout Agadir, currently caring for 96 boys and 80 girls. Utilizing peer mentoring methodologies [1, 5] student volunteer peer mentors and CVCL staff work with approximately 180 young people per year and support over 25 staff members to help deliver key life-skills and health messages [K]. Stakeholders such as the CVCL play a crucial role in supporting organizational development and sustainability. The Centre has worked closely with CVCL to create a strong partnership and to use sport as a tool to engage with the children. Since 2014, CVCL has added significant capacity to the Centre in terms of knowledge exchange and in the development of a sustainable structure.

Nawal Rais, the CEO, has stated that children displaying behavioural issues and not attending has significantly reduced from 50% to 13%, with many now regularly attending school and demonstrating a positive attitude to learning.

Further change in terms of increased extra-curricular interventions including football and basketball have also been reported on national TV in Morocco. Finally, to ensure a lasting and sustained impact the University of Central Lancashire have supported the Centre in making physical activity a core element of the curriculum.