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inFocus Consulting Ltd, Omega House,
6 Buckingham Place, Bellfield Road West
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
HP13 5HW
Definition of Sport for Development
S4D Definition:
A S4D intervention is one that is intentional in its’ use of sport and physical activity to attain specific social development objectives.
A S4D intervention aims to effect a series of changes for an intended target audience (we call these changes ‘outcomes’) and employs a particular approach to the design and delivery of a sport and physical activity intervention that helps leverage the positive attributes of sport, to optimise the social objectives achieved.
A S4D intervention gives priority to the achievement of these social objectives, above any sporting performance objectives.
The social outcomes (changes) that S4D projects aim to achieve are varied in nature, across the sector. They have been categorised under 7 Social Impact Areas (see the S4D Impact Framework diagram to the right hand side).
For a full list of the common S4D outcomes under each of these social impact areas, please review Table 1 below.
Table 1: Common Outcomes within each S4D Impact Area
Outcome | Outcome Definition |
Individual Development** | |
Improved Self-efficacy | An improvement in the participants’ perceived self-confidence in their current abilities and future tasks. It is task specific; a person can view themselves as good at one task but not another. A participants’ sense of self-efficacy can play a major role in how they approach goals, tasks and challenges. It involves recognition that they can make a difference to their own life. |
Improved Self- esteem | An improvement in the participants’ overall sense of self-worth (personal value), self-respect, self-perception and self-awareness. It involves beliefs about the self, such as appearance (body image), emotions and behaviours. |
Improved Motivation | An improvement in how goal oriented the participants’ behaviour is. Motivation is what causes a person to act and achieve something: a person’s ambitions and aspirations. Sometimes, individuals are motivated by personal gratification and, other times, for external rewards (such as money, recognition or praise). Motivation involves initiating action (active initiative) and continued effort even though obstacles may exist (determination). |
Improved Managing emotions | An improvement in the participants’ ability to recognise their emotions and their effects (self-awareness) by examining and regulating emotions, thoughts and resulting actions (self-reflection, self-management) and keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check (self-control, self-regulation, self-discipline). |
Improved Resilience | An improvement in the participants’ perseverance and persistence when faced with obstacles (grit) and their flexibility in handling change (adapting, coping). |
Improved Social skills | An improvement in how the participants interact and relate to others. It can apply to simple social contexts and work environments. It relates to confidence in social interactions (social competence), forming relationships, working effectively in teams and interpreting others. It includes the ability to lead peers and be a role model, and to empathise and motivate others. It also includes communication skills such as expressing, presenting and listening. |
Improved life skills | An improvement in the life skills of the participants. “Life skills” are defined as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are grouped into three broad categories of skills: cognitive skills for analysing and using information, personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself, and inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others. |
Improved self-discipline | An improvement in the participants’ ability to control their conduct and overcome their weaknesses, for personal development. |
Improved teamwork | An improvement in the participants’ willingness to participate in a team. |
Increased knowledge about rights | An improvement in the participants’ knowledge about their rights. Rights are the legal, social or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement – the normative rules about what participants are allowed to do. These may include, but are not limited to, the rights of life, liberty, education, equality and freedom of thought and expression. |
Health and well being | |
Improved physical wellbeing** | An improvement in the participants’ fitness and physical wellbeing. This may include Improved functional fitness, cardio respiratory fitness, muscular strength, adiposity/ body composition; cholesterol levels, bone health, joint health and immune system function. |
Improved mental wellbeing** | Improved mood, feelings of happiness and life satisfaction, and reduced levels of stress and anxiety of the participants. |
Positive health behaviour | Improved diet (healthy eating), safe sex, reduced substance misuse, and smoking cessation of the participants. |
Less need for health services | An improvement in the participants’ physical health by increasing fitness and reducing obesity; preventing a number of chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, strokes, osteoporosis, hypertension); and providing therapeutic benefits for the management of existing diseases and illnesses. Improvement in mental health by lowering the risk of depression; managing anxiety and stress; increasing an overall sense of wellbeing; and helping with some systems of clinically diagnosed personality disorders (such as schizophrenia). |
Increased knowledge and understanding of health and health risks | An increase in the participants’ knowledge of potential health risks, their potential consequences and how to prevent them. |
Improved diet and nutrition | An increase in the participants’ ability to apply their knowledge of diet and nutrition to their everyday lives to make ongoing positive and healthy food choices. |
Reduced obesity | A reduction in the number of overweight or obese participants (or rate of obesity). |
Smoking cessation or reduced substance misuse | A reduction in the rate of regular tobacco use by participants. |
Reduced incidence of HIV/ AIDS | A reduction in the incidence of HIV infection/ AIDS amongst the participants. |
Employability | |
Enhanced career prospects | Enhanced career prospects for the participants in a secure job or access to training opportunities. |
Enhanced employability skills | An increase in the participants’ skills and experience for job/ career prospects. |
Young people gain work experience | An increase in the number of young people participants with work experience. |
Increase in self-employment | An increase in the numbers of participants who are self-employed. |
Education | |
Improved cognitive functioning | The mental processes (such as perception, attention, memory and decision- making) involved in an individual’s problem-solving, time management, critical thinking, creativity and intellectual flexibility. |
Improved access to education | A reduction in the barriers that participants face to access education, resulting in an improvement in their access. |
Improved attendance at school | Reduced absenteeism. |
Increased motivation and engagement in school | Improved engagement with school and improved behaviour in school of the participants. |
Fewer discipline problems | A reduction in the incidence of behavior issues and disciplinary incidents amongst students. |
Reduced school drop-out rates | Reduced school drop-out rates of the participants. |
Improved educational attainment and achieving qualifications | Improved learning, academic performance, attainment at school and achievement of qualifications of the participants. |
Social & Community Cohesion | |
Increased social capital and trust | Increased social capital of the participants. Social capital describes the pattern and intensity of formal and informal networks among people and the shared values which arise from those networks. Aspects of social capital include increased levels of trust, increased membership of various groups and improved access to networks and amount of social contact individuals have in their lives. Different types of social capital can be described in terms of different types of networks: • Bonding social capital describes closer connections between people and is characterised by strong bond • Bridging social capital describes more distant connections between people and is characterised by weaker, but more cross-cutting ties • Linking social capital describes connections with people in positions of power and is characterised by relations between those within a hierarchy where there are differing levels of power. |
Increased volunteering | Frequent activity of the participants that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives. Volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual. |
Increased community cohesion and spirit | Increased community cohesion and spirit of the participants. A cohesive community is one where there is a common vision and a sense of belonging for all communities; the diversity of people’s different backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and positively valued; and those from different backgrounds have similar life opportunities. |
Strengthened community through leadership and democratic participation | Increased civic engagement of the participants (citizens participate in the life of a community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community’s future); and greater social cohesion. |
Reduced anti-social behaviour | Participants demonstrate Improved pro-social values and reduction of behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to others. Increased positive social interactions. |
Improved cultural awareness of participants | Improved interaction and interconnection of the participants between cultural groups (this may include subcultures), specifically those who have a history of being excluded or hard to reach. |
Reduced gang participation | A reduction of the participants’ engagement with or participation in gangs which are involved in serious, violent or territorial behaviour. |
Disability | |
Increased fairness and equality | Improved equality of opportunity and reduced stigma and discrimination for all participants, at work, in public, social and political life, and in people’s life chances |
Positive change in the perception of disabled people in communities | Increased acceptance, understanding and a shift from negative to positive beliefs, values and dispositions of the participants towards and amongst disabled people. This is key to combatting prejudice and harmful practices. |
Increased awareness of the issues affecting disabled people | An increased awareness of participants of the issues affecting disabled people. Key issues affecting disabled people may include: stigma and discrimination, disability equality issues, access to services, independent living. |
Disabled people feel more integrated in society | Disabled people feel more integrated in society. Integration means people’s ability to play an active part within their community in terms of holding valued roles, participating in meaningful activities and developing lasting friendships. Being integrated into the community gives people a sense of purpose and identity. It also improves people’s self-esteem and quality of life. |
Gender Equity and Equality | |
Improvement in awareness about gender inequality and gender roles | An improvement of the participants’ awareness about the unequal treatment of individuals wholly or partly due to their gender. This may be demonstrated by positive language and behaviours used by participants when talking about the roles of women, girls, men and boys. |
More female participants taking up pathways to become leaders | An increase in the number of female participants taking up pathways to become leaders, such as becoming a sports coach or seen as a role model. |
Increase in female role models | An increase in the number of female persons looked to by others as an example to be imitated. Role models could be community leaders, coaches or youth workers, for example. |
Increase in female participation in sports activities | An increase in female participation (enrolment and sustained engagement) in sports activities. |
Improved body confidence of female participants | An improvement how female participants perceive their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. The feelings can be positive, negative or both, and are influenced by individual and environmental factors. |
Improved advocacy by participants for womens’ and girls’ rights | An increase in the numbers of participants who stand-up and advocate for womens’ and girls’ right. Womens’ and girls’ rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls in favour of men and boys. |
Increased feeling of safety by female participants | Increased feelings of the female participants that they do not anticipate either harm or hurt, emotionally or physically. |
Safe spaces for females are provided | A safe space is a place or environment in which female participants feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, unfair/ harmful criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm. |
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inFocus Consulting Ltd, Omega House,
6 Buckingham Place, Bellfield Road West
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
HP13 5HW
Over the last 15 years, inFocus has also designed a wide range of different customised training courses for clients around the world. The courses are specifically tailored to the needs of your organisation and attendees in the training, building on the extensive inFocus resources.
Our custom training has covered a range of areas, including inFocus core areas of expertise in impact measurement and management
(IMM), theory of change and strategic planning. We have also developed training on more specific topics, such as the launch of new grant schemes for funders.
Our options for custom training include:
inFocus conducts independent, external evaluations to facilitate learning and support accountability.
We have conducted evaluations of high complexity projects, programmes and organisations for delivery agencies, funders, policymakers and networks, both in the Sport for Development and Peace and wider international development sector. We utilise a range of approaches including: Summative; Theory Based; Process; Developmental; Impact; and Participatory.
inFocus executes specific applied research projects on various topics such as Sport for Development, social impact measurement, and strategies for scaling impact. Our findings are designed to be implementable and timely.
Our team is comprised of experienced practitioners who are trained to bridge the gap between traditional research and practical evaluation. We provide a range of different evaluation approaches and methodologies suited to either individual projects or complex funding programmes. We systematically explore and document what is working and highlight areas to for further improvement to help funders explore overall impact strategies.
inFocus helps delivery agencies, funders and networks use their data effectively to report back to stakeholders and utilise data as a tool for development and growth. We work with organisations to do this by giving support in key areas, based upon their identified and priority needs:
inFocus works with philanthropic organisations that provide grants and support to third party organisations delivering programmes or initiatives. Funders include charities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, governmental or inter-governmental agencies and private sector companies. Our consultancy services are specifically designed to address some of the key challenges that funders face, whether that is:
Theory of Change is a technique that helps you to map out and explore how your activities lead to social change, and your underlying beliefs or assumptions. It is a powerful tool for helping to:
‘A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world.’
Strategy is about asking yourself vital questions concerning What are you trying to achieve? What is the external situation and how can we address it? Are we effective? How can we convince others of this?
inFocus helps organisations to focus on their most critical issues and identify high leverage directions that allow the organisation to renew and reinvent itself, preserving its vitality and its competitive edge.
We’ve worked with non-profits and charities all around the world to scale up, scale out and scale together for more sustainable impact:
The Tools and Resources for Impact Measurement and Management section of our website is dedicated to providing a comprehensive suite of resources that can be downloaded and put to practical use by our Impact Community.
The resources are all aligned to our IMM courses, particularly the IMM Builder course, which provides step by step guidance on how they can be developed and adapted to your own context, and put firmly into practice.
The Tools and Resources are categorised and cover the following IMM areas:
PLEASE NOTE: This section to our website is coming soon.
InFocus is committed to sharing learning and best-practice within the development and humanitarian sectors.
We regularly run (free to join) public webinars (online workshops) on different topics to share best-practice and generate critical debates between experts and practitioners.
The 90-minute webinars cover a range of topics, including most recently:
Click on the ‘Impact Community’ section above to find out how to become a member and receive regular updates on our public training.
Register for Webinars
When running a programme, project or activity within a community, it is critical for organisations to understand what IS working and what ISN’T and how to more effectively generate social and environmental impact. inFocus set up and run online learning communities around the world that bring organisations together to discuss and draw out best practice around a particular topic.
Typically, for inFocus a learning community includes the following elements:
Read about our approach to Peer-to-Peer Learning Communities here.
When running a programme, project or activity within a community, it is critical for organisations to understand what IS working and what ISN’T and how to more effectively generate social and environmental impact. inFocus set up and run online learning communities around the world that bring organisations together to discuss and draw out best practice around a particular topic.
Typically, for inFocus a learning community includes the following elements:
Read about our approach to Peer-to-Peer Learning Communities here.
Completing all three of the eLearning courses: IMM: Introduction, IMM: Foundation and IMM Builder will also open up ongoing professional development opportunities in IMM with free access to bi-monthly IMM webinars run by inFocus experts.
The 2-hour webinars will provide an opportunity to:
Theory of Change is a technique that helps you to map out and explore how your activities lead to social change, and your underlying beliefs or assumptions. It is a powerful tool for helping to:
The IMM Basics email course is scheduled for release mid-May 2020
We will let you know as soon as you can enroll and get started!
The Builder course is scheduled for release on Friday 29th May 2020
The release is timed so that all currrent learners can first complete the IMM Introduction and IMM Foundation courses.
We will let you know as soon as you can enroll and get started!
The Foundation course is scheduled for release on Friday 24th April 2020
The release is timed so that all currrent learners can first complete the IMM Introduction course.
We will let you know as soon as you can enroll and get started!
Completing all three of the eLearning courses: IMM: Introduction, IMM: Foundation and IMM Builder will also open up ongoing professional development opportunities in IMM with free access to bi-monthly IMM webinars run by inFocus experts.
The 2-hour webinars will provide an opportunity to:
The Tools and Resources for Impact Measurement and Management section of our website is dedicated to providing a comprehensive suite of resources that can be downloaded and put to practical use by our Impact Community.
The resources are all aligned to our IMM courses, particularly the IMM Builder course, which provides step by step guidance on how they can be developed and adapted to your own context, and put firmly into practice.
The Tools and Resources are categorised and cover the following IMM areas:
PLEASE NOTE: This section to our website is coming soon!
inFocus conducts independent, external evaluations to facilitate learning and support accountability.
We have conducted evaluations of high complexity projects, programmes and organisations for delivery agencies, funders, policymakers and networks, both in the Sport for Development and Peace and wider international development sector. We utilise a range of approaches including: Summative; Theory Based; Process; Developmental; Impact; and Participatory.
inFocus executes specific applied research projects on various topics such as Sport for Development, social impact measurement, and strategies for scaling impact. Our findings are designed to be implementable and timely.
Our team is comprised of experienced practitioners who are trained to bridge the gap between traditional research and practical evaluation. We provide a range of different evaluation approaches and methodologies suited to either individual projects or complex funding programmes. We systematically explore and document what is working and highlight areas to for further improvement to help funders explore overall impact strategies.
inFocus helps delivery agencies, funders and networks use their data effectively to report back to stakeholders and utilise data as a tool for development and growth. We work with organisations to do this by giving support in key areas, based upon their identified and priority needs:
InFocus is committed to sharing learning and best-practice within the development and humanitarian sectors.
We regularly run (free to join) public webinars (online workshops) on different topics to share best-practice and generate critical debates between experts and practitioners.
Click on the ‘Impact Community’ section above to find out how to become a member and receive regular updates on our public training.
An inFocus Learning Community brings together ‘like-minded’ organisations to exchange knowledge, share methods and results and map out both commonalities and differences in approaches.
Our learning webinars and live workshops bring together actors and organisations that work directly with beneficiaries, with evaluation and research experts specialising in the focal area. These are dedicated to particular thematic areas (e.g. gender equality, or disability) and can have a global, regional or local geographic focus, sometimes linked to a specific funder or network. In our Learning Community webinars and workshops, common challenges and solutions are shared, common indicators, outcomes and tools discussed and defined, with best practices to achieve these outcomes identified and documented.
We pride ourselves upon being able to then translate insights and learning into highly accessible and engaging materials, taking advantage of multi-media capabilities and tools, such as eLearning modules, online forums, meetings and webinars to disseminate knowledge across the field.
inFocus works with philanthropic organisations that provide grants and support to third party organisations delivering programmes or initiatives. Funders include charities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, governmental or inter-governmental agencies and private sector companies. Our consultancy services are specifically designed to address some of the key challenges that funders face, whether that is:
‘A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world.’
Strategy is about asking yourself vital questions concerning What are you trying to achieve? What is the external situation and how can we address it? Are we effective? How can we convince others of this?
inFocus helps organisations to focus on their most critical issues and identify high leverage directions that allow the organisation to renew and reinvent itself, preserving its vitality and its competitive edge.
We’ve worked with non-profits and charities all around the world to scale up, scale out and scale together for more sustainable impact:
InFocus is committed to sharing learning and best-practice within the development and humanitarian sectors.
We regularly run (free to join) public webinars (online workshops) on different topics to share best-practice and generate critical debates between experts and practitioners.
Click on the ‘Impact Community’ section above to find out how to become a member and receive regular updates on our public training.
Over the last 15 years, inFocus has also designed a wide range of different customised training courses for clients around the world. The courses are specifically tailored to the needs of your organisation and attendees in the training, building on the extensive inFocus resources.
Our custom training has covered a range of areas, including inFocus
core areas of expertise in impact measurement and management
(IMM), theory of change and strategic planning. We have also
developed training on more specific topics, such as the launch of new
grant schemes for funders.
Our options for custom training include:
Please feel free to get in touch to discuss your specific requirements for custom trainings.