Sporting Inspirations is a Community Interest Company that has worked in collaboration with Catalyst Housing Association to provide sports sessions, such as basketball, to culturally diverse communities in Leighton Buzzard and Luton. These sports sessions have been crucial in addressing anti-social behaviour incidents in these areas, as diverse communities have been able to form bonds that wouldn't typically have been formed.

The collaboration between Sporting Inspirations and Catalyst Housing Association has proven how sport can be used as a tool to address wider societal outcomes, and also how support from the Together Fund has had a positive impact on the young people. A key outcome that has come out of this project is Fearless United, a sports team that participates in training sessions and friendly matches with other teams. Fearless United is made up of culturally diverse people who perhaps wouldn't always interact with each other in day-to-day settings.

As well as promoting community cohesion, Sporting Inspirations and Catalyst maintain that their sports sessions must be accessible and affordable for those from low-income backgrounds. Inspired by the lack of accessibility and affordability of affiliated football clubs, Sporting Inspirations and Catalyst are collaborating on their own research into accessibility, while seeking ways in which they can make Fearless United an affiliated team and attract young people from low-income backgrounds who are not in educations, employment or training. Their aim is to make this affiliated team totally free, and hopefully inspire football academies across the country to follow in the same direction so all young people have more equality of opportunity, and a movement can be created to access young people who may not be able to access such opportunities in this moment in time.

Both Sporting Inspirations and Catalyst have stressed the positive impact on the young people this project has had in terms of their attitudes to physical activity, and life in general. The project started at a time where knife crime in the area was rife, and so Fearless United has been a successful intervention for these young people, taking their focus away from anti-social behaviour and more towards being active, teamwork and forming friendships.

The support from the Together Fund that team BEDS&LUTON provided for Sporting Inspirations and Catalyst has enabled this project to get off the ground. We are delighted that this project has presented itself as an opportunity for young people who have struggled to access sport services previously and has had such a positive impact on the local community in terms of community cohesion.