Bring us a project 
Local Champions platform · Sport for Development
Mothers & Care
One evolving women-centred model, developed through research, co-design and delivery to make sport, wellbeing and progression more accessible to mothers and carers.
Initial funderSport England Tackling Inequalities Fund
Later supportPropel · UP CHANGE Network
Delivery partnerOlympia Infinity FC
CapabilityResearch · Co-design · S4D delivery
For many mothers and carers, the barrier to sport and progression is not motivation. It is the absence of childcare, trusted environments, flexible support and provision designed around the realities of care.
- Research barriers to participation with women and community partners.
- Co-design a model that treated childcare, wellbeing and trust as core infrastructure.
- Deliver the first football-led iteration with Olympia Infinity FC.
- Strengthen the model through further mentoring and whole-person support for mothers and carers.
- Capture learning and build partner capability so delivery could continue locally.
- Accessible, quality football sessions for women.
- Childcare alongside activity rather than as an afterthought.
- Wellbeing, mentoring and community support shaped around participants’ lives.
- Successive iterations informed by participant feedback and frontline learning.
Results and evidence
£7,450initial programme commissionedSport England funded the first football-led iteration through the Tackling Inequalities Fund.
4connected support elementsFootball, childcare, wellbeing and mentoring were designed as one participant experience.
1evolving S4D modelSuccessive research, co-design and delivery rounds were consolidated into Mothers & Care.
Built incare, wellbeing and mentoringThe model treats the realities of caring as core programme infrastructure, not an add-on.
What the work shows
Effective Sport for Development starts with the whole person. When sport, childcare, wellbeing and progression are designed as one connected experience, participation becomes more realistic, dignified and sustainable.
“The childcare made it possible to take part, while the quality of coaching and the supportive environment made the programme feel genuinely built for women like us.”
Ema Tiller-Cordy · Participant