Gamechanger: harnessing football for social change
ISSN: 1476-9018
Article publication date: 12 March 2020
Issue publication date: 11 May 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of an intersectoral partnership that has taken place in Scotland (United Kingdom) entitled Gamechanger. The main idea of Gamechanger was for statutory, commercial and voluntary organisations to work in partnership to harness the power of football (soccer), to tackle health inequalities and social exclusion. The paper will detail how Gamechanger has been developed, with reference to the newly developed “Incite” model for effective intersectoral partnership working.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on the authors’ experiences of leading and evaluating intersectoral partnerships from 2015 to 2019. The report draws on the work which took place during that period, and the achievements in relation to Gamechanger.
Findings
Gamechanger has led to significant innovations. It has encouraged sectors to work together, and develop new ways of responding to difficult societal problems.
Originality/value
Gamechanger is believed to be the first initiative of its kind developed with a football club in Scotland.
Conclusions
This work has been developed through robust community-informed efforts. The scope and scale of the projects to deliver community benefits is significant. Gamechanger has provided a means for football to take a different approach to how it works to benefit communities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the input and commitment of a number of partner agencies including: Advocard; Aid & Abet; CAPS Advocacy; CIRCLE; City of Edinburgh Council; Clear Design; Community Pharmacy Scotland; Cyrenians; Destiny Church; Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership; Edinburgh Leisure; Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network; EVOC; Health in Mind; Healthy Active Minds; Hibernian Community Foundation; Hibernian Community Trust; Hibernian Football Club; Leith Festival Association; Listen, Think, Draw; MECOPP; Network Rail; NHS Lothian; Patients Council, Royal Edinburgh Hospital; Pilmeny Development Project; Police Scotland; Queen Margret University; SAMH; Spartans Football Academy; Story Contracting; Strange Town Theatre Company; Street Soccer; Support in Mind; Tesco (Leith Branch); The Citadel; The Stafford Centre; The State (Leith) CIC; Turning Point; University of Edinburgh. We acknowledge the funding contribution from the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Division. Some content in this work was derived from a Doctoral thesis (Irvine Fitzpatrick, 2018).
Citation
Irvine Fitzpatrick, L., Maciver, D., Dempster, L. and Forsyth, K. (2020), "Gamechanger: harnessing football for social change", Journal of Integrated Care, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 87-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICA-09-2019-0043
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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