Beyond Sport Global Awards: Teams and Leagues make the cut
The Official Shortlist for the Beyond Sport Global Awards was announced on 22nd May, and the excitement is building ahead of the Awards ceremony in New York in July. The Awards take place during Beyond Sport United, supported by the major US leagues – MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, WNBA. The event will include community-driven content, thought-leadership discussion, and an inspiring evening celebrating the Beyond Sport Global Awards, which highlight and support the world’s most impactful and innovative projects using sport as a tool for social change.
This year’s Beyond Sport Global Awards were redefined to align with the Sustainable Development Goals and promote sport’s role in working toward Agenda 2030. Each category was aligned to at least one development goal, so as to encourage entries to think about what their project is doing to work towards the SDGs.
The redefining of the Awards led to some unprecedented figures:
- Over 260 entries across 11 categories
- 70 countries represented
- Over 40 different sports
Many of the professional teams and leagues from North America submitted entries, and there were some incredible projects making a real impact within communities. Reducing the entries to a final shortlist was an extremely difficult task for our global judging panel. Here, we profile the teams and leagues that made it on to the Official Shortlist.
Sport for Equality Award - Hockey is for Everyone, NHL & NHLPA
The Hockey is for Everyone initiative aims to effectuate substantive, positive behavioral change for players, employees, fans and other key stakeholders. The implementation of this objective takes myriad forms, including marketing, internal education, aligning key stakeholders, grant-making, youth sports programming, social media and more. The NHL designated February as Hockey is for Everyone month to reaffirm that the official policy of the sport is one of inclusion on the ice, in our locker rooms and in the stands. Year-round, support continued for non-profit youth and minor hockey organizations across North America that are committed to offering underprivileged and disadvantaged children an opportunity to play hockey, leveraging the sport to build character, foster positive values and develop important life skills.
Sport for Health and Well-being Award - Imagine Your Goals, Everton in the Community
Everton in the Community has helped to pioneer a series of programmes to specifically tackle mental health issues among different groups within the local community. Using football as a therapeutic tool the programme adopts a holistic approach to supporting individual’s overall health and wellbeing by building resilience and creating tangible support networks to combat loneliness and isolation to aid on-going recovery.
Best Corporate Campaign and Initiative - MLSE Foundation, MLSE Launchpad
MLSE Foundation believes every child should have access to quality, affordable sport programming in top-quality facilities. We know that sport has the powerful ability to transform the lives of children and youth facing barriers through the development of life-skills. MLSE LaunchPad is a new 42,000 sq. ft. Sport For Development facility that combines sport, education and research to provide physical activities and life skills programming for young people facing barriers to recognize and reach their potential. MLSE LaunchPad’s overall program objective is to promote health, safety, education, and employment through participation in intentional sport programming.
Sport for Innovation and Tech - NBA and Discovery Education Team Up for a Math Slam Dunk
The NBA and Discovery Education partnered in November 2016 on a new multi-year initiative designed to deepen middle and high school students' engagement in mathematics nationwide by combining the passion for professional basketball with key math concepts. This new collaboration harnesses students’ interest in professional basketball to help teach important mathematics concepts. Interactive math problems(,) derived from NBA and WNBA game footage and statistics such as points, rebounds, assists and more, have been integrated into Discovery Education’s Math Techbook™. This has transformed the way students and teachers experience math through engaging instructional strategies and real-world problems that motivate and excite students with diverse learning styles.
Sport for Climate Action - Sacramento Kings, Golden 1 Center
The Sacramento Kings are dedicated to showcasing a new standard of utilising resources intelligently—through the actions of energy efficiency, reducing waste(,) and implementing innovations. Golden 1 Center, the new home of the Sacramento Kings, has become the world’s first indoor sports venue to achieve LEED Platinum status and the only sports arena in the world to be powered 100 percent by solar energy. Sacramento Kings are using the platform of being an NBA team, with nearly 2 million guests per year, to demonstrate how professional sports can work to protect our environment and utilize resources productively/effectively (already used intelligently).