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Wear your rainbow laces with pride! The island celebrates its first Jersey Pride in Sport Week, 3-9 February

The first Jersey Pride in Sport Week is taking place this year, from 3-9 February.

The campaign, which has been created in partnership with Liberate (Jersey) and EY, aims to promote awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion across sport and physical activity for everyone in the island.

Chris Matthews, Partner at EY said, “At EY, we have been keen to see Pride in Sport introduced in Jersey after its successful launch in Guernsey during CI Pride in 2018. The campaign brought about awareness of the challenges the LGBTQ+ community can experience and the detrimental impact it can have on their confidence to participate and spectate at sporting events. It’s only when people feel truly accepted and able to be their authentic selves that they can perform at their best. As teammates, competitors, fans and organisations, it’s everyone’s responsibility to stand up to discriminative behaviour in all its guises and Jersey Sport’s training will provide people with the skills and understanding to do just that.”

Racism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexism and other prejudicial language can all too often be heard on the pitch or in the changing room and gets dismissed as ‘banter’. The words we use matter and make the difference between an inclusive space or one that feels exclusive and intimidating for people from minority groups.

James Tilley, Sport Partnership Manager at Jersey Sport said, “Sport should be for everyone, but there are some groups for whom significant barriers to participation in sport exist. In the UK, for example, more than 55% of LGBTQ+ people are not active enough to maintain good health. Changing these statistics requires all of us to understand what we can do make our clubs, teams, schools and associations more inclusive.”

This is why we are asking sports clubs and activity groups to show their support for Jersey Pride in Sport Week by wearing rainbow laces from 3-9 February, ideally during sporting activities, or before or after activities that do not involve shoes or boots requiring laces.

We’d love to see a wide section of the local community getting involved, whether its schools, football or rugby teams, cycling or walking groups, aerobics or dance classes – the free rainbow laces demonstrate commitment to making sport and physical activity an inclusive and discrimination-free space. We’re asking everyone to please share pictures of their team or group wearing the rainbow laces across social media during Jersey Pride in Sport Week, using the hashtag #JerseyPrideInSport

Rainbow laces can be collected from the offices of Jersey Sport at the FB Fields and EY’s office in Liberation House, Castle Street. Laces will also be handed out during Jersey Sport’s launch of the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Sport and Physical Activity Workshop on 5 February 2020.

This new Jersey Sport workshop aims to give players, captains, coaches, referees, umpires, volunteers, club officers and other supporters an introduction to issues around diversity and inclusion, and is as essential for sports clubs and associations as safeguarding, mental health awareness and first aid.

Vic Tanner Davy, CEO, Liberate said, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Jersey Sport and with the support of EY to create and deliver the diversity and inclusion training that is part of Jersey Sports’ SportsMark Essential training for all sports clubs, associations and teams in the island. The recent headlines about racism in football remind us that we cannot be complacent about all forms of discrimination on or off the pitch. It is something we should all be alert to and be prepared to challenge when we hear it. The rainbow laces campaign is a way to talk about this issue with sports people in Jersey and to launch the new training scheme.”

Sports clubs and activity groups wanting rainbow laces should contact Jersey Sport at: info@jerseysport.je or visit: jerseysport.je/jersey-pride-in-sport-week/ for further information. People are asked to share photos wearing their rainbow laces using #JerseyPrideInSport

For details of Jersey Sport’s workshops and to book onto the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Sport and Physical Activity Workshop, please visit: jerseysport.je/workshops

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