Premiership Rugby is very excited that Aviva, the world’s fifth-largest insurance group and the largest insurance services provider in the UK, is Premiership Rugby’s new title sponsor. You can see the full press release on Aviva’s site here, and the four year partnership will officially launch closer to the start of the 2010-2011 season.

We’re particularly excited about Aviva’s sponsorship because of their commitment to and interest in grassroots athletics. Aviva is committed to supporting the development of grassroots sport, especially among young people. Between them, the 12 rugby clubs in Aviva Premiership Rugby will commit 15,000 man hours to work with 36,000 pupils per season at 600 primary schools as well as providing them with equipment and teacher training.

We’ll be sharing more about this as it happens!

Unfortunately the season has now come to an end but behind the scenes at Premiership Rugby the work doesn’t stop!

A new scheme now being run by Northampton Saints in partnership with MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it!) is underway and hopes to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity.

Sian Haynes, head of community at Northampton Saints, said:
“Rugby is a great sport to help deal with the issue of childhood obesity. There are different versions of the game, from Tag Rugby up to full contact, and as a professional sports club we are in an excellent position to give the children everything they need to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.” 

Government statistics indicate that one in five children are overweight or obese by the time they start school.  The Saints scheme is part of Premiership Rugby’s continuing effort to instigate early intervention programmes and hope that in doing so we will be able to lower the obesity figures amongst children in the future.  

In accordance with this, Premiership Rugby has also announced their support for National Childhood Obesity Week, an inaugural scheme being run by MEND and The National Obesity Forum.  The week will run from the 5^th to the 11^th July. 

We welcome the opportunity to support National Childhood Obesity Week and hope that the awareness it creates will help communities to understand how prominent this issue is.  Childhood obesity is an area of great importance to us and is one our community officers deal with on a day to day basis, but we believe strong brands, outstanding facilities and the admirable role models that rugby provides make the sport an invaluable tool in helping to fight the battle against obesity. 

Take a look at the images below of the Saints scheme in action!

Bristol Rugby pipped Saracens, Bath Rugby and Northampton Saints to the top award after a panel of judges unanimously crowned their Phoenix Project: Bright Sparks Programme as the winner. The four clubs battled for the title after being named as category winners in the first round.  Here’s a quick look at how things went on the night.

‘Bright Sparks’ is a social inclusion programme that utilizes the highest quality rugby union skills, drills and games, with team building and leadership workshops. The aim is to attain rapport with, and re-engage designated young people from schools in high risk areas back into the educational process. Working in partnership with organisations such as, Avon Fire & Rescue Service, Avon & Somerset Police and SERCO Prisons, the programme provides young people with direct and tangible examples of how poor life choices will directly affect their lives.

Derek Wyatt MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group said;

“This is the most sensational programme. It focuses on youth crime and anti-social behaviour, which are two very tricky areas to tackle. Their aims and objectives are really clear, well thought through and very targeted. It’s a very clean and simple programme, which is producing results. Bristol Rugby are solving something that, we can’t do as a government, nor can local education authorities.”

The awards were judged by a panel including; Derek Wyatt MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group, Robert Walter MP, Treasurer of the All Party Parliamentary Group, Mark McCafferty, CEO of Premier Rugby Ltd, Kevin Roberts, Editorial Director of SportBusiness Magazine and Alex MacGillivray, Senior Partner at Accountability.

Here’s a look at how things went on the night.

Winners from the first round were awarded on the night as follows;

Health Programme of the Year – Northampton Saints – Kick Smoking into Touch programme

Education programme of the Year – Bath Rugby Community Foundation – Language through Sport programme

Participation Programme of the Year – Saracens – Community Dance Programme.

Social Inclusion Programme of the Year – Bristol Rugby – Phoenix Project: Bright Sparks programme.
Commendations to Worcester Warriors – Worcestershire npower tag inclusive programme.

The All-Party Parliamentary Rugby Citizenship Awards, now in their fifth year, recognise the positive impact that professional rugby clubs have on their local environment, community and society.

Our goal is to put community investment at the heart of the work we do as a professional sport.  Our Chief Executive Mark McCafferty gives us an overview of the community season ahead in this recent interview:

(To learn more about the sports season itself, listen to Mark’s interview on that subject here.)

We know that by engaging with local communities we cannot just help encourage kids to play rugby, but we can also make a contribution to dealing with other social problems.

Rugby is a great sport and a great way to encourage people to stay active but we think our brands, our players and our facilities can go beyond just addressing physical activity. Our programmes also set out to tackle social issues like health, social inclusion, education, and anti-bullying.

If you’d like to know more about our community policies, partnerships and programmes, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Below is an update on some of our most recent community projects:

Positive Futures

We’ve been working this summer on a few new areas, one of which has been a social inclusion pilot project with Positive Futures in London. To find out more about it, visit our Positive Futures blog post here and listen to a series of interviews with London Active Communities CEO Gary Stannett and others who participated or helped deliver the scheme.

EDF Energy Schools Programme

I am also delighted that we’re starting a new season of the world’s largest rugby-based community programme – the EDF Energy National Schools Rugby Programme, a national programme that has exposed thousands of 8-10 year olds to tag rugby. All twelve clubs in the Guinness Premiership participate; last fall the EDF Energy programme celebrated reaching 500 schools and we hope to reach 112,000 children by July 2009. (The government recognised the achievements of the programme last year when the National Sports Foundation awarded it a grant of almost £200,000.)

Wooden Spoon and the NSPCC

We have also got some interesting new programmes coming with the Wooden Spoon and the NSPCC. But more of that shortly…

Coaker also had this to say about the programme:

“We know that playing sports like rugby can boost young people’s confidence and self-esteem which in turn helps to make them resilient to the kind of peer pressure that can sometimes lead to drugs, crime and anti-social behaviour. I welcome the contribution that London’s professional rugby clubs are making in bringing sports to deprived neighbourhoods in inner cities and offering young people an alternative.”

PRL clubs Irish, Harlequins and Saracens worked closely with Positive Futures and charity London Active Communities to deliver an eight week programme to 280 boys and girls.

© Sabera Bham 2008

The programme taught touch rugby skills and also offered drug education, leadership and personal development pathways for participants through workshops and within coaching sessions.

© Sabera Bham 2008

Listen here an overview from Gary Stannett, CEO London Active Communities, on the pilot programme:

Listen here to comments from Helen Clayton, Operations Manager Sport Action Zone, on how the pilot was received by participants:

Listen here to some of the responses from coaches and players involved in the summer project:

Welcome to Professional Rugby in the Community. This blog is about the community work undertaken by Premier Rugby and the clubs of the Guinness Premiership. Premier Rugby operates community schemes on a national level, including the EDF Energy National Schools Rugby Programme (one of the most comprehensive rugby programmes in the world), as well as regionally through the clubs. Our goal is to be the most successful professional sport in the community area. Through this blog, we want to show how we’re helping our partners (government departments, charities and NGOs) accomplish governmental objectives related to sports participation, health, education and other areas. We want each professional rugby club to be the epicentre of its local community, and hope that the examples and best practices we share on this blog will generate debate and further discussion. Please feel free to comment on any of our posts, and if you have any questions please email me.