basketballscotland foundation
The basketballscotland foundation helps people to make positive changes to their lives and communities. Through inclusive, participative sport, the foundation helps people build their confidence, self-esteem, resilience, problem solving and leadership skills, whilst also encouraging healthy, active lifestyles and creating strong, cohesive communities around a positive shared passion.
The foundation is an independently constituted charity (SC045055), endorsed by basketballscotland. The charity was established to increase the social impact that basketball makes throughout Scotland.
Our Mission
- To harness the power of sport to change lives
- To improve the communities in which we operate
- To remove barriers to participation in healthy activity
- To use sport to engage people in education
Our values and beliefs
Inspiration: Sport can inspire change
Equality: Access to sport should be open to all
Teamwork: We achieve more working together
People-focussed: People drive positive change
What we do
Whilst the governing body has wide-reaching responsibility for the development of the sport of basketball in Scotland – ranging from international competition to grassroots participation – many of its activities and programmes consistently achieve high-impact outcomes beyond the sport.
From enhancing players’ health and wellbeing to strengthening entire communities, and from creating inclusive recreational opportunities to increasing the confidence of disadvantaged and marginalised young people, basketball in Scotland is already a powerful catalyst for positive social change.
The basketballscotland foundation will deliver and develop basketball projects that intentionally deliver social impact for the participants and the communities in which the sport is played.
Our targeted outcomes
Through participation in basketballscotland foundation programmes, people of all ages and their communities will experience a range of positive outcomes:
- Increased participation in sport – people who are disengaged or hard-to-reach, people experiencing social and economic deprivation, and people with disabilities and other protected characteristics, have more structured and positive opportunities to participate in a team sport.
- Improved Health & Wellbeing – through regular participation in sport, people will feel fitter, improve their nutritional habits, enhance their mental health and improve their self-reported wellbeing. In the long term, by becoming more active participants will reduce their risk of suffering chronic conditions and delay the need for care in later life.
- Increased Confidence and Self-esteem – players, coaches and volunteers increase their confidence and self-esteem through taking on positions of responsibility, overcoming barriers, enjoying success, accepting defeat, and, for marginalised, disadvantaged or disabled participants, through finding a positive activity in an inclusive, welcoming environment – often for the first time.
- Stronger Communities – through membership of a club or association with a team, people feel a greater sense of belonging and self-regard. People experience pride in their local community or through their community of shared interest in basketball. Meaningful and fulfilling volunteering opportunities are created and fulfilled.
- Improved Motivation – by learning new skills and achieving success through teamwork and persistence, people become more motivated to pursue their ambitions outside of basketball – for example in school, work or volunteering. School attendance figures are higher for participants in extra-curricular basketball than for the student population as a whole.
- Positive Destinations – People enter and sustain positive destinations as a direct or indirect result of participating in a BSF programme.