The riots in the summer of 2011 revealed to the world a generation of disaffected youth, many living on the outskirts of society with little hope for their future. We, as a nation, need a strong commitment to these young people to help raise aspirations, increase confidence and help develop life skills that enable this generation to reach their potential. sported.passionately believe that sport can and should play a strong role in making this reality.

We welcome DCMS's recent sport strategy announcement that focuses on young people – few can argue the health benefits of participating in sport. However, side by side the participation agenda, sits the sport for social development sector, which is too often forgotten about.

With the support of a thriving sport for development sector in the UK, a strategy on sport and legacy in the UK should also focus on using sport as a means to an end – helping to increase confidence, motivation, leadership skills and communication which in turn enables young people to develop into well-adjusted young people who contribute positively to society. Sport in this case is used as the hook to engage and the vehicle to educate young people. There is a clear intention to achieve a specific social outcome as a result of engaging in the sport, it is not sport for sports sake but sport for change.

Sport can engage those that are more likely to offend, those that live in poverty, those lacking positive role models which in turn contributes towards lower crime figures, increased numbers back in education or training and better emotional health. sported. recognises that if you want a young person to learn, you have to give them something they want to learn about. Sport is a vehicle that can start to inspire and change some of the most disillusioned young people in our society.

There are thousands of organisations throughout the UK who are delivering sport to disadvantaged young people and helping to change lives. However, they are invariably being run by volunteers who have limited funding and not necessarily the ability to run the business side of their organisations. This is where our role as the leading charity in the sport for development sector comes in; sported. provides the much needed business support and funding these hard to reach sport groups need in order to develop sustainably and in turn help change young peoples lives.

While it is refreshing to see DCMS and Sport England's strategy focus funding towards young people, sported. feel there is a need to rethink how the sport sector can help to deliver social outcomes which will in turn benefit our whole society.