Page 38 - Spring 2019

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Partnership with parkrun
Partnership with parkrun
A £3 million investment in parkrun will see the free 5km runs focus
on helping more women and people from lower socio-economic
groups to get active. We'll collaborate with parkrun for three years
to support the creation of 200 new events across England.
The National Lottery money will help to build on the phenom-
enal growth parkrun has seen in the 14 years since its creation.
With 125,436 events having taken place in 584 locations, parkrun
has more than 1.8 million registered participants and our aim is to
extend that network.197.2 = average number of participants per parkrun
Our investment will focus on the key areas of increasing the number of women and girls
who take part, as well as increasing participation from lower socio-economic groups – two major
targets in our strategy Towards an Active Nation. “This important partnership with parkrun is part
of our ongoing strategy to help grow new and innovative sporting ideas and broaden their reach
into the demographics in society who are least likely to be active,” said our chief executive, Tim
Hollingsworth.
“The funding – which is only possible thanks to National Lottery players – will enable
parkrun to reach females and people on a low income, who are less likely to be active than the
general population.“ We know from our research that cost and a lack of local opportunities are
real barriers in stopping people being more active, and what parkrun does brilliantly is offer free,
community-based events for all abilities.“ We’re looking forward to working with parkrun to help
even more people get and stay active.”
Parkrun began in October 2004, with a timed 5km run in Bushy Park, south west London.
Since then the free, timed, 5km runs have spread across the country and this investment will
enable the modernisation of parkrun’s digital platform for registration, results and event infor-
mation, in order to allow it to continue to grow indefinitely.
“This is an endorsement of the strides we have taken to create a model that empowers
communities to implement a permanent mixed gender, multi-generational health intervention
that appeals to a broad cross-section of society, particularly those for whom physical activity ex