Niki Shepheard, Strategic Place Lead for Active Lincolnshire writes about how we are working with partners to develop a new Place Partnership team to support our work in Place in East Lindsey, Boston and South Holland.

In 2023, Sport England announced an unprecedented £250m expansion of its investment in local communities. It is being done through its Place Partnerships campaign to unashamedly target resources and efforts on communities that need the greatest levels of support in order to become more physically active.

Sport England has identified East Lindsey and Boston, and more recently South Holland, as high-priority areas in our county where more people should have the chance to lead active, healthy lives. A Place Partnership is, at its heart, a community-led approach, Sport England is working with Active Lincolnshire to deliver this programme locally.

We have put together a great team of people to work on the development phase of the Place Partnership with Sport England, and also with the support of our strategic partners and stakeholders – Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service, the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership and the Lincoln Institute for Rural and Coastal Health at the University of Lincoln.

In November the new Place Partnership team all got together for the first time. It was an opportunity to meet everyone, to share what we have been doing so far, and to tell everyone about our ambitions for our communities. We were joined by Michelle Gant, from Engaging People, who gave us an inspiring introduction on how inclusive collaboration and engagement maximises community involvement. We heard from John Morris, a consultant with Newman Francis, who talked to us about asset-based community development as a way to unlock the potential that is already there in our communities. And Chris Perks, coach and mentor to Active Partnerships, gave us an instructive overview of how the work of our Community Connectors underpins the requirements from Sport England to deliver the project.

The Place Partnership team is here to identify and connect groups with facilities, families with health coaches, or individuals with social prescribers – anyone and anything that will help build shared, accessible social capital. Our Community Connectors are already on the ground, listening to and talking with the people who will benefit from this Place Partnership collaboration, as they tell us what they can offer or what they need to make it work. We have visited schools, GP surgeries, community groups and leisure providers to find out what great work is already being done and what more is needed.

We’re here to unlock the potential that we know exists in our communities, so please do get in touch and help us drive that change. If you'd like to get involved in our work in place email Niki Shepheard.

Find out more about our work in place here.