This Girl Can, UKActive & CIMSPA team up to create safer spaces for women

July 15, 2022 

Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign, ukactive and CIMSPA (The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity) have partnered to help ensure that leisure centres, gyms and health clubs are safe and inclusive for women across the UK. Sport England will invest nearly £500,000 into its campaign in order to empower operators in the sector to better understand and support women’s safety and provide resources and training for leisure and fitness facilities. 

The joint initiative was announced during ukactive’s 30th June 'Active Uprising' conference – the organisation’s flagship event that aims to inspire and champion its members and the sports sector – in Birmingham. The effort  builds on the November 2021 release of ukactive and This Girl Can's research and resulting guide addressing barriers to women and girls' participation in physical activity. The research found that many women cite personal safety concerns as one of the reasons they may be reluctant to be active in gyms and leisure centres, with two-thirds of women who had attended a facility saying they had taken some measure to protect themselves from sexual harassment in a fitness or leisure centre. 

The guide, ‘How to improve your services for women and girls: as told by the 51%’, provides actionable advice to attract women and girls to facilities. It aims to protect women and help them feel assured and confident in the facilities they visit. Furthermore, it intends to ensure that leisure sector workforce members feel better equipped to support women and prioritise their inclusion and safety. 

“Safety and harassment fears often stop women from getting active, and these fears can undermine confidence to the point that many women are reluctant to use gyms and leisure centres,” said Ali Donnelly, Executive Director of Digital, Marketing and Communications at Sport England. “Through This Girl Can we have learned a huge amount about how to help our partners make their facilities and spaces safe and welcoming for women, and this investment will provide significant support to the leisure and fitness sector to make improvements.” 

Since its release, the guide has been downloaded more than 1,500 times by organisations within the fitness and leisure sector, with many already beginning to implement recommendations to help tackle this area of concern for women according to ukactive. 

As part of the project, £496,000 worth of funding will contribute to: 

• Partnering with safeguarding organisations and experts from both inside and outside the sector to bring on board their expertise 
• Developing tools, training and best-practice guidance to upskill the workforce on how to deal with issues relating to personal safety as well as providing the support to enable staff to also feel safer and more confident themselves
• The creation of sector-wide opportunities for leisure facilities to deliver, with a core focus on supporting women to use weights areas within facilities and reduce feelings of intimidation 

“The work of this project will not only positively impact women and girls visiting facilities, but others too, as we continue to grow and draw people from more diverse backgrounds – becoming a fully inclusive environment for everyone to feel safe, empowered and comfortable while enjoying the benefits of being active,” said Steve Scales, Director of Membership and Sector Development for ukactive. 

Sport England is a Supporting Partner of our upcoming Beyond the Games 2022 forum alongside UK Sport. Learn more and register to join us on 26 July at Birmingham’s Villa Park as we focus on sport's role in Tackling Inequalities, Health & Well-Being and Environmental Sustainability.