Brentford Football Club Community Sports Trust, the charitable arm of Brentford Football Club, is celebrating – and not only because it turns 30 this year.

The 100-strong team of staff and volunteers at the West London organisation, which has been serving the communities of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond since 1987, has good reason to
feel proud. Not only have they recently reported annual social impact cost savings of £13.7m in 2015/2016 (an increase of 38 per cent in three years), they’ve also received an ‘Excellent’ rating in Quest’s Sport for Development assessment, a new accreditation from Quest, the Sport England-backed quality scheme.

The growing sport for development (S4D) sector is made up of organisations that use sport to achieve individual and social objectives, from improving physical and mental wellbeing and educational attainment to increasing community cohesion and civic engagement, particularly by young people.

Aimed at nascent and growing sport for development agencies in need of organisational support, as well as traditional sports organisations that don’t have a track record of using sport for social objectives, Quest Sport for Development has been jointly developed with Substance, a leading social research and technology company.

Although Quest is well known for its work with sports development teams and facilities – there are more than 600 Quest-accredited leisure centres in the UK – this is its first award aimed at agencies that use sport to improve personal and social outcomes. Brentford FC Community Sports Trust was one of just three organisations to take part in a pilot of the new assessment early last year, along with the Tottenham Hotspur
Foundation, a fellow FC trust; and the Positive Youth Foundation, a Coventry-based
organisation.

With Millwall Community Trust becoming the fourth organisation to receive the
accreditation, following its official rollout last June, it’s clear the new award has a
lot to offer football club trusts in particular.

This article was published in Sports Management, Volume 21, Issue 4

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