Community initiative launched to train 50,000 'sport leaders'

A new community sport initiative will look to train up 50,000 young people as sport leaders, as part of efforts to increase the number of young people who take part in physical activity.

The scheme will be run as a partnership between Asda Community Life, Sports Leaders UK, ukactive and Spirit of 2012 Trust. It will deliver activities inspired by the athletic achievements and "public spiritedness" of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Young people taking part in the initiative will be offered Sports Leaders UK courses and qualifications, with a particular focus on engaging youth from areas of deprivation.

The aim is to increase the number of sports leaders' volunteering hours from 640,000 to 1m.

The first activities of the three-year initiative will be the Asda Active Sports Days. A total of 400 schools across the country will host flagship sports days, organised and run by local sports leader volunteers, with support from Asda's local Community Life Champions.

The programme is one of the first to be funded by the Spirit of 2012 Trust, which was established to ensure the values, opportunities and spirit of the London 2012 Games is experienced across the country.

The trust has awarded £1.5m for the scheme, with Asda also making a "significant contribution" to the costs of running it.

Debbie Lye, CEO of Spirit of 2012 said: "Sport can be an incredible enabler for change. Volunteering is at the heart of Spirit's mission to encourage participation and well-being, and therefore we are hugely proud to be helping this partnership deliver such fantastic work in so many of our communities."