British Fencing’s fifth strategic objective is “to maximise the wider benefits of fencing and the positive impact it can have on people’s lives”
We believe fencing has a unique potential to positively impact people’s lives and can be used to respond to the growing use of sport as a tool for social change in line with sector developments.
To fund our work in this area we are diversifying our income generation (looking wider than the traditional Sport England funding) to allow us to deliver a portfolio of Sport for Social Change projects
In order to identify potential projects and programmes BF undertakes regular insight work to look at specific areas where we believe our sport has a unique and positive contribution to improving people’s lives. Our social impact programmes are built using BF’s Theory of Change model, developed with sector partner experts.
Our current portfolio of community projects include:
Muslim Girls Fence
This project was originally conceived within a desire to support young Muslim girls in London to access opportunities to participate in sport whilst also seeking to build self-efficacy and confidence, increase social connection whilst also challenging stereotypes.
Our flagship social impact project Muslim Girls Fence” has been running for nearly 8 years, and is currently delivering in Birmingham, Bradford, Doncaster and London and featured as one of the flagship projects for This Girl Can in 2023. The film Nobody’s Metaphor takes a look at very first MGF project in London.
More information on the project can be found here.
Fencing for Change (ASD)
Anecdotally over the years we received significant amounts of positive feedback from parents of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders who had started fencing and and found it had a profoundly positive impact on their children’s lives. Alongside this, our equality survey was highlighting that fencing attracts and retains a significant number of neurodiverse people.
We decided to look into this to see whether we could prove any positive impact of fencing on children with ASD.
The results from our initial pilot (in conjunction with University of Hertfordshire) proved that fencing, as part of a specifically designed programme, helps to increase physical literacy and reduce social isolation.
Following the pilot project, BF has partnered with the Change Foundation to deliver the Fencing 4 Change programme to young people aged 11 – 16 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Fencing 4 Change provides fencing sessions in after school clubs across London for young people with ASD and uses creative coaching methodology to encourage integration, develop motor skills and provide a unique experience for young people who may never access fencing, or don’t engage with mainstream sports.
Currently the project is working in 8 schools across London and is seeking funding to expand across the UK.
More information on the project can be found here.
London Youth
Our partnership with London Youth allows British Fencing to provide youth workers with training to deliver fencing in a safe, fun and engaging way, whilst ensuring that the activity can be sustained and delivered in-house. The project has engaged over 1300 young people in fencing so far.
Post pandemic our focus has been to support youth clubs to re-train new and existing youth workers by delivering two Core Coach courses throughout the year, as well as supporting a focused group of clubs to deliver a longer term programme over 40 weeks.
More information on the project can be found here.
Uniformed Groups
BF supports uniformed youth groups by providing:
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