Sport as a Safe Space: Inspiration as Intervention Series
Oct 11, 2025
The literature is unambiguous: sport can provide the safe spaces young people need to thrive, but only if programmes are intentional and relational. Positive role models with long-term development pathways are the cornerstones of effective intervention.
Across the UK, rising levels of youth violence, exclusion, and online harm have placed boys and young men at the centre of public concern. The question for practitioners, policymakers, and funders is no longer whether these challenges exist, but how best to respond. Recent research suggests that sport, when designed with intention and inclusivity, can be a critical protective factor in preventing serious youth violence.
A literature review produced by Loughborough University in partnership with StreetGames, one of the UK’s leading ‘sport for development’ charities, highlights sport’s unique role in fostering belonging, providing diversion from risky environments, and building pro-social behaviours (Walpole, 2025). Yet it also cautions that sport alone is not a “magic bullet”. It is the relational environment, mentoring, and pathways beyond the activity that make the difference.
The Power of Sport as Prevention
Sport has long been recognised as more than play. Structured sporting environments provide young people with alternatives to the pull of gangs or exploitative networks. Research consistently finds that targeted sport interventions reduce offending and reoffending rates when embedded within local violence reduction strategies (Walpole, 2025).
The Lost Boys report further underscores this point with 96% of the prison population being male and boys being twice as likely to face exclusion from school, early engagement through credible activities is vital (CSJ, 2025). As the report states, “Where once working-class boys could expect a good job for life… boys in many post-industrial areas today have limited opportunity for well-paid work” (CSJ, 2025). In this vacuum, prevention requires accessible, meaningful alternatives. Sport is often the first place where this can be achieved.
Safe Spaces and Belonging
Perhaps the most consistent theme in the literature is the importance of belonging. Sport creates literal and emotional safe spaces, places where boys feel seen, accepted, and valued. The literature review emphasises that it is the “safe, inclusive, and relational spaces” that reduce isolation and mitigate the pull of violence.
Dr Sophie King-Hill is an Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham. Her recently published resource, We’re in This Together, makes the same case: reframing masculinity is not about rejection but expansion, creating environments where boys can explore identity, vulnerability, and respect (King-Hill, 2025). Without such spaces, boys are more likely to withdraw, act out, or seek belonging in harmful contexts.
Role Models and Mentorship
The literature is unequivocal about the role of trusted adults. Coaches, mentors, and positive male figures are often the first credible role models boys encounter outside the home. Where fathers are absent, a reality for 2.5 million UK children (CSJ, 2025), sport can fill a vital gap.
Yet the absence of positive role models leaves boys vulnerable to harmful substitutes. We’re in This Together highlights how online influencers and digital subcultures promoting misogyny are shaping boys’ attitudes to relationships, masculinity, and self-worth (King-Hill, 2025). These online spaces often validate dominance, control, and emotional suppression, while dismissing empathy and vulnerability. For many boys, exposure begins at an early age, long before adults are aware of the content they are consuming. This creates a distorted picture of masculinity that can normalise misogyny, discourage emotional openness, and fuel risky behaviours both online and offline.
Mentorship in sport thus goes far beyond technical training. It provides a counter-narrative to these harmful masculinities and equips boys with models of resilience, responsibility, and compassion.
Building Social and Emotional Skills
Sport is uniquely positioned to teach transferable skills. Resilience, discipline, teamwork, and emotional regulation are built into the rhythms of training and competition. The literature review identifies these as core protective factors against youth violence.
However, without intentional facilitation, sport can also reinforce damaging masculine norms, toughness, suppression of vulnerability, or dominance over others. We’re in This Together cautions against this, urging programmes to model compassionate, inclusive masculinities instead (King-Hill, 2025). The challenge is not to remove masculinity from sport, but to expand it positively.
The Limits of Sport Alone
The evidence base is clear: sport cannot succeed in isolation. Short-term projects, underfunded initiatives, and “one-off” sessions risk failing to create lasting change. More concerning, poorly designed programmes may unintentionally reinforce harmful stereotypes or exclude the very boys most at risk.
As the literature review states, “Sport must be embedded within a wider ecosystem of support, prevention, targeted intervention, and pathways into education, training, and employment” (Walpole, 2025). This requires long-term investment and coordination across schools, councils, and community organisations.
What the Evidence Calls For
When read together, the reports call for a consistent set of interventions:
Safe, inclusive, relational spaces that foster belonging and identity exploration.
Role-model driven mentorship to counter harmful influences.
Integrated programmes that combine prevention, intervention, and pathways.
Long-term investment embedded in local and regional violence reduction strategies.
This vision is clear. The challenge is we need more innovative partnerships that integrate services and organisations across communities.
How Beyond The Cage Responds
This is precisely where Beyond The Cage (BTC) positions itself. BTC translates the literature’s insights into a practical delivery platform.
Ambassadors: Inspiring male role models from sport, education, and lived experience deliver workshops, talks, and mentoring. Each ambassador is professionally supported, ensuring their story becomes a sustainable intervention rather than a one-off encounter.
Safe Spaces: BTC programmes are intentionally relational, designed to create environments where boys feel seen, respected, and included.
As the Lost Boys report concludes, “We must stop seeing masculinity as a problem to be solved and start seeing it as a strength to be nurtured” (CSJ, 2025). BTC provides structured, outcome-driven programmes that inspire young men and boys with real stories from ambassadors who care deeply about helping to creative a positive impact in their lives.
Closing Note
The literature is unambiguous: sport can provide the safe spaces young people need to thrive, but only if programmes are intentional and relational. Positive role models with long-term development pathways are the cornerstones of effective intervention.
If you are interested in collaborating with our ambassadors or would like to learn more about how we could work together, please send an email to zak.sylvester@ea5.com or complete our enquiry form.
References
Across the UK, rising levels of youth violence, exclusion, and online harm have placed boys and young men at the centre of public concern. The question for practitioners, policymakers, and funders is no longer whether these challenges exist, but how best to respond. Recent research suggests that sport, when designed with intention and inclusivity, can be a critical protective factor in preventing serious youth violence.
A literature review produced by Loughborough University in partnership with StreetGames, one of the UK’s leading ‘sport for development’ charities, highlights sport’s unique role in fostering belonging, providing diversion from risky environments, and building pro-social behaviours (Walpole, 2025). Yet it also cautions that sport alone is not a “magic bullet”. It is the relational environment, mentoring, and pathways beyond the activity that make the difference.
The Power of Sport as Prevention
Sport has long been recognised as more than play. Structured sporting environments provide young people with alternatives to the pull of gangs or exploitative networks. Research consistently finds that targeted sport interventions reduce offending and reoffending rates when embedded within local violence reduction strategies (Walpole, 2025).
The Lost Boys report further underscores this point with 96% of the prison population being male and boys being twice as likely to face exclusion from school, early engagement through credible activities is vital (CSJ, 2025). As the report states, “Where once working-class boys could expect a good job for life… boys in many post-industrial areas today have limited opportunity for well-paid work” (CSJ, 2025). In this vacuum, prevention requires accessible, meaningful alternatives. Sport is often the first place where this can be achieved.
Safe Spaces and Belonging
Perhaps the most consistent theme in the literature is the importance of belonging. Sport creates literal and emotional safe spaces, places where boys feel seen, accepted, and valued. The literature review emphasises that it is the “safe, inclusive, and relational spaces” that reduce isolation and mitigate the pull of violence.
Dr Sophie King-Hill is an Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham. Her recently published resource, We’re in This Together, makes the same case: reframing masculinity is not about rejection but expansion, creating environments where boys can explore identity, vulnerability, and respect (King-Hill, 2025). Without such spaces, boys are more likely to withdraw, act out, or seek belonging in harmful contexts.
Role Models and Mentorship
The literature is unequivocal about the role of trusted adults. Coaches, mentors, and positive male figures are often the first credible role models boys encounter outside the home. Where fathers are absent, a reality for 2.5 million UK children (CSJ, 2025), sport can fill a vital gap.
Yet the absence of positive role models leaves boys vulnerable to harmful substitutes. We’re in This Together highlights how online influencers and digital subcultures promoting misogyny are shaping boys’ attitudes to relationships, masculinity, and self-worth (King-Hill, 2025). These online spaces often validate dominance, control, and emotional suppression, while dismissing empathy and vulnerability. For many boys, exposure begins at an early age, long before adults are aware of the content they are consuming. This creates a distorted picture of masculinity that can normalise misogyny, discourage emotional openness, and fuel risky behaviours both online and offline.
Mentorship in sport thus goes far beyond technical training. It provides a counter-narrative to these harmful masculinities and equips boys with models of resilience, responsibility, and compassion.
Building Social and Emotional Skills
Sport is uniquely positioned to teach transferable skills. Resilience, discipline, teamwork, and emotional regulation are built into the rhythms of training and competition. The literature review identifies these as core protective factors against youth violence.
However, without intentional facilitation, sport can also reinforce damaging masculine norms, toughness, suppression of vulnerability, or dominance over others. We’re in This Together cautions against this, urging programmes to model compassionate, inclusive masculinities instead (King-Hill, 2025). The challenge is not to remove masculinity from sport, but to expand it positively.
The Limits of Sport Alone
The evidence base is clear: sport cannot succeed in isolation. Short-term projects, underfunded initiatives, and “one-off” sessions risk failing to create lasting change. More concerning, poorly designed programmes may unintentionally reinforce harmful stereotypes or exclude the very boys most at risk.
As the literature review states, “Sport must be embedded within a wider ecosystem of support, prevention, targeted intervention, and pathways into education, training, and employment” (Walpole, 2025). This requires long-term investment and coordination across schools, councils, and community organisations.
What the Evidence Calls For
When read together, the reports call for a consistent set of interventions:
Safe, inclusive, relational spaces that foster belonging and identity exploration.
Role-model driven mentorship to counter harmful influences.
Integrated programmes that combine prevention, intervention, and pathways.
Long-term investment embedded in local and regional violence reduction strategies.
This vision is clear. The challenge is we need more innovative partnerships that integrate services and organisations across communities.
How Beyond The Cage Responds
This is precisely where Beyond The Cage (BTC) positions itself. BTC translates the literature’s insights into a practical delivery platform.
Ambassadors: Inspiring male role models from sport, education, and lived experience deliver workshops, talks, and mentoring. Each ambassador is professionally supported, ensuring their story becomes a sustainable intervention rather than a one-off encounter.
Safe Spaces: BTC programmes are intentionally relational, designed to create environments where boys feel seen, respected, and included.
As the Lost Boys report concludes, “We must stop seeing masculinity as a problem to be solved and start seeing it as a strength to be nurtured” (CSJ, 2025). BTC provides structured, outcome-driven programmes that inspire young men and boys with real stories from ambassadors who care deeply about helping to creative a positive impact in their lives.
Closing Note
The literature is unambiguous: sport can provide the safe spaces young people need to thrive, but only if programmes are intentional and relational. Positive role models with long-term development pathways are the cornerstones of effective intervention.
If you are interested in collaborating with our ambassadors or would like to learn more about how we could work together, please send an email to zak.sylvester@ea5.com or complete our enquiry form.
References
Across the UK, rising levels of youth violence, exclusion, and online harm have placed boys and young men at the centre of public concern. The question for practitioners, policymakers, and funders is no longer whether these challenges exist, but how best to respond. Recent research suggests that sport, when designed with intention and inclusivity, can be a critical protective factor in preventing serious youth violence.
A literature review produced by Loughborough University in partnership with StreetGames, one of the UK’s leading ‘sport for development’ charities, highlights sport’s unique role in fostering belonging, providing diversion from risky environments, and building pro-social behaviours (Walpole, 2025). Yet it also cautions that sport alone is not a “magic bullet”. It is the relational environment, mentoring, and pathways beyond the activity that make the difference.
The Power of Sport as Prevention
Sport has long been recognised as more than play. Structured sporting environments provide young people with alternatives to the pull of gangs or exploitative networks. Research consistently finds that targeted sport interventions reduce offending and reoffending rates when embedded within local violence reduction strategies (Walpole, 2025).
The Lost Boys report further underscores this point with 96% of the prison population being male and boys being twice as likely to face exclusion from school, early engagement through credible activities is vital (CSJ, 2025). As the report states, “Where once working-class boys could expect a good job for life… boys in many post-industrial areas today have limited opportunity for well-paid work” (CSJ, 2025). In this vacuum, prevention requires accessible, meaningful alternatives. Sport is often the first place where this can be achieved.
Safe Spaces and Belonging
Perhaps the most consistent theme in the literature is the importance of belonging. Sport creates literal and emotional safe spaces, places where boys feel seen, accepted, and valued. The literature review emphasises that it is the “safe, inclusive, and relational spaces” that reduce isolation and mitigate the pull of violence.
Dr Sophie King-Hill is an Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham. Her recently published resource, We’re in This Together, makes the same case: reframing masculinity is not about rejection but expansion, creating environments where boys can explore identity, vulnerability, and respect (King-Hill, 2025). Without such spaces, boys are more likely to withdraw, act out, or seek belonging in harmful contexts.
Role Models and Mentorship
The literature is unequivocal about the role of trusted adults. Coaches, mentors, and positive male figures are often the first credible role models boys encounter outside the home. Where fathers are absent, a reality for 2.5 million UK children (CSJ, 2025), sport can fill a vital gap.
Yet the absence of positive role models leaves boys vulnerable to harmful substitutes. We’re in This Together highlights how online influencers and digital subcultures promoting misogyny are shaping boys’ attitudes to relationships, masculinity, and self-worth (King-Hill, 2025). These online spaces often validate dominance, control, and emotional suppression, while dismissing empathy and vulnerability. For many boys, exposure begins at an early age, long before adults are aware of the content they are consuming. This creates a distorted picture of masculinity that can normalise misogyny, discourage emotional openness, and fuel risky behaviours both online and offline.
Mentorship in sport thus goes far beyond technical training. It provides a counter-narrative to these harmful masculinities and equips boys with models of resilience, responsibility, and compassion.
Building Social and Emotional Skills
Sport is uniquely positioned to teach transferable skills. Resilience, discipline, teamwork, and emotional regulation are built into the rhythms of training and competition. The literature review identifies these as core protective factors against youth violence.
However, without intentional facilitation, sport can also reinforce damaging masculine norms, toughness, suppression of vulnerability, or dominance over others. We’re in This Together cautions against this, urging programmes to model compassionate, inclusive masculinities instead (King-Hill, 2025). The challenge is not to remove masculinity from sport, but to expand it positively.
The Limits of Sport Alone
The evidence base is clear: sport cannot succeed in isolation. Short-term projects, underfunded initiatives, and “one-off” sessions risk failing to create lasting change. More concerning, poorly designed programmes may unintentionally reinforce harmful stereotypes or exclude the very boys most at risk.
As the literature review states, “Sport must be embedded within a wider ecosystem of support, prevention, targeted intervention, and pathways into education, training, and employment” (Walpole, 2025). This requires long-term investment and coordination across schools, councils, and community organisations.
What the Evidence Calls For
When read together, the reports call for a consistent set of interventions:
Safe, inclusive, relational spaces that foster belonging and identity exploration.
Role-model driven mentorship to counter harmful influences.
Integrated programmes that combine prevention, intervention, and pathways.
Long-term investment embedded in local and regional violence reduction strategies.
This vision is clear. The challenge is we need more innovative partnerships that integrate services and organisations across communities.
How Beyond The Cage Responds
This is precisely where Beyond The Cage (BTC) positions itself. BTC translates the literature’s insights into a practical delivery platform.
Ambassadors: Inspiring male role models from sport, education, and lived experience deliver workshops, talks, and mentoring. Each ambassador is professionally supported, ensuring their story becomes a sustainable intervention rather than a one-off encounter.
Safe Spaces: BTC programmes are intentionally relational, designed to create environments where boys feel seen, respected, and included.
As the Lost Boys report concludes, “We must stop seeing masculinity as a problem to be solved and start seeing it as a strength to be nurtured” (CSJ, 2025). BTC provides structured, outcome-driven programmes that inspire young men and boys with real stories from ambassadors who care deeply about helping to creative a positive impact in their lives.
Closing Note
The literature is unambiguous: sport can provide the safe spaces young people need to thrive, but only if programmes are intentional and relational. Positive role models with long-term development pathways are the cornerstones of effective intervention.
If you are interested in collaborating with our ambassadors or would like to learn more about how we could work together, please send an email to zak.sylvester@ea5.com or complete our enquiry form.
References
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