Community Games

Are you interested in organising an event for your community?  Then why not consider organising a Community Games!   Community Games provide a great opportunity for you to bring your community together to take part in sporting and cultural activities inspired by, and in celebration of, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games aren't just about four weeks of sport in London; they're a culmination of a four-year celebration of culture and diversity in communities up and down the UK.

Community Games are one of the programmes Inspired By London 2012, bringing people of all backgrounds together in towns, cities and villages right across the West Midlands to take and play their part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

By holding your own Community Games, the inspiration of London 2012 will be coming to your community!

A Community Games event must include both sporting and cultural activities, and some sort of ceremony, this could be an opening or closing ceremony, or could just be a welcome speech, it is entirely up to you. Your event could involve an element of competition; or it could focus simply on getting people participating in sports or cultural activities they might never have tried before.

The important thing is that each event will be shaped by those involved and be about what that community wants to do. 

Your community could be your street, your estate, colleagues at work, a 'friends of' group from your local park, your children's school the list goes on. You could, in fact, form a new community. 

Please view some case studies of Community Games which were held in 2011.

WHAT SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE?
If you want to organise a Community Games, you will have access to the following support:

• FREE Community Games workshops taking place throughout the county in February/March on how to organise and promote your Games, where you'll be able to meet other people planning their Games and share ideas with them
• A website - www.communitygames.org.uk, with lots of helpful ideas, resources and templates
• The biggest help to you will probably be the Community Games toolkit, which you'll find on the Community Games website. It contains loads of useful information and tips for organising an event. The answers to many of the detailed questions that you'll probably have when you start to think about organising an event can all be found in the toolkit. 
• We'll help you promote your Games by giving you a page on the web site
• A Community Games Funding guide to inform Communities and Community Games organisers about the national and local funding streams available which they can apply for to help plan, organise and deliver a Community Games event
• We'll be keeping you up-to-date with an e-newsletter every so often with information and news on what's happening across the region
• And our designers have produced some eye-catching posters & postcards for you to personalise and use to help promote your Games.
• Also Community Games bunting and banners to hire free of charge for your event
• Then there's the local members of the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Community Games team who will be on hand to advise and help you to bring your ideas to life.

To find out more about Community Games, how you can get involved, and the support on offer, please go to www.communitygames.org.uk

For more information on organising Community Games events in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, please contact Chris Turner on cturner@staffordbc.gov.uk or 01785 619681

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LATEST NEWS

For those who are interested in finding out more about the Community Games, please express your interest at - http://www.communitygames.org.uk/content/express-your-interest

Please can Community Games organisers planning an event in 2012, register their games at - http://www.communitygames.org.uk/content/register-your-games