We’re delighted to celebrate and share a realist-informed review of the Sport for Confidence Community Health Service, by Sport for Confidence Senior Occupational Therapist and Strategic Lead, Liz Fletcher, undertaken as part of her PgCert in Population Health.
Her project, From sickness to prevention: how can meaningful participation support population health?, explored a question that sits at the heart of our work: how does Sport for Confidence appear to work, for whom, under what conditions; and what learning might be transferable elsewhere?
One of the strongest themes was that physical activity matters; but activity alone does not explain change.
The review suggests that meaningful, adapted activity, combined with occupational therapy, trusted relationships, warm introductions and inclusive environments, may help create feelings of safety, confidence, agency and belonging. Physical activity can then become both an outcome and a vehicle for wider participation and community connection.
Importantly, the learning did not stop with the individual. Liz’s review also explored how occupational therapy can strengthen the wider workforce, and how Sport for Confidence’s role in connecting partners may help create clearer pathways and more inclusive systems.
The next question is not simply, “Can we copy Sport for Confidence somewhere else?” It is: what conditions would another place need to create for similar mechanisms to occur?
That is particularly relevant as Liz begins to consider what this learning could mean for other places; with an emphasis on adaptation, lived experience, local readiness and testing before scaling.
A brilliant piece of learning for us as an organisation; and one we hope contributes to wider conversations about prevention, participation and population health.
Read Liz’s presentation here: SFC Sickness_to_Prevention presentation
