Anglia Community Leisure's Street Sport sessions have already proven hugely popular with local young people but now they have also had the official thumbs up by being awarded the StreetGames 'StreetMark'.

StreetGames is a groundbreaking national charity which develops sport with disadvantaged communities and makes sport accessible to young people regardless of their social circumstances. The StreetMark is like a quality kite mark for the sport, designed to make sure all StreetGames activities meet specific quality standards.

Keiran Williams, Community Sports Leader for Anglia Community Leisure, says: "StreetGames believes that no one should miss out simply because of where they live or how much money they have so they help local people to establish what they call 'doorstep sport' – sport where they want it, when they want it and how they want it. There's no 'one size fits all' – it's all about finding the right solution for each community. At our busiest session last year, we had 60 people turn up to take part so it seems that 'doorstep sport' really works!"

This year, if they can raise enough funding, Anglia Community Leisure aims to run free sports sessions in Newmarket and the surrounding area, including Mildenhall, Stetchworth, Burwell, and West Row. The target is to run 396 individual sessions totalling 774 hours worth of activity involving 5940 attendances.

The statistics speak for themselves. During the summer holidays in 2010, Anglia Community Leisure ran a session a week at St Johns in Mildenhall in the Great Heath Ward of the Forest Heath District. During this time, rowdy and inconsiderate behavior was down by 5.3% compared to the same months in 2009.

From September to November, extra sessions were held at St Johns and criminal damage was down by 20% compared to the same period the year before. (Figures supplied by Suffolk County Council.)

Neil Ireland, Inspector for Forest Heath Police Safer Neighborhood Team, says: "The Street Sport programme has had a positive effect on anti social behaviour and criminal damage in St Johns and the wider Forest Heath area, with anti social behaviour in Mildenhall going down by 16% overall during the last 12 months. Suffolk Constabulary fully supports the scheme and we hope it will be able to run again this year."