The recording and minutes from the 2022 Annual  General Meeting are now available. The annual general meeting provides a summary of the organisations progress throughout the year and is attended by Parkour UK members.

You can read the minutes here and watch the video below:

Parkour UK – AGM 2022 Recording

If you are interested in reading minutes or records from previous meetings please check out our governance page.

Parkour UK are delighted to announce funding of £1.575 million to help support and grow parkour participation and use the sport to tackle inequalities in England over the next 5 years. Together, we will be able to build resources and capabilities that ensure more people have equal access to sport and physical activity.

The money is part of the recent funding announcement from Sport England, supporting 121 partners with a total of £550 million. This includes other National Governing Bodies, Key Charities, Safeguarding Organisations and Active Partnerships.

Dan Newton, CEO at Parkour UK commented on the announcement 

“This announcement is really exciting and a major step forward. It will allow Parkour UK to build the infrastructure to serve, elevate and add value to the parkour community. It is the result of the combined effort of the staff and board, and the award gives the organisation an unprecedented level of financial security to help deliver our Moving with Purpose strategy.  

We will make an impact across the whole spectrum of the parkour community; this includes both the ‘structured’ and ‘informal’. The structured community is where people access ‘formal’ parkour classes indoors and outdoors and are influenced by workforce of coaches, venue managers and coaching companies. The informal community is where people learn by sharing their practice with friends without structure. They are influenced by athletes, practitioners and content creators and online content for engagement.

The investment will provide the capacity and resources to act on what we know about the structured community immediately and continue the discovery phase with the informal community. Our plans align closely with the ‘5 Big Issues’ set out in Sport England’s ‘Uniting the Movement Strategy’ and the ambition to tackle inequalities.”

Dr Tracy Rea, Chair of Parkour UK believes:

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO at Sport England, said:

“At the heart of our strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ is a relentless focus on tackling inequalities to help everyone get active – no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is. We cannot do this alone, and that’s why we are building a movement of partners that share our goal to level up access to sport and physical activity.”

Parkour UK are currently advertising some part time vacancies to join the team, we are looking for forward thinking and curious individuals who want to help engage the community and inspire more people to participate. Further details can be found at http://www.parkour.uk/work-with-us

Train Hard Parkour based in Poole have seen a strong increase in women attending their parkour classes after running a series of women’s courses over the last 6 months. In September 2021 Train Hard received a significant grant from BCP council via the Bounce Back Challenge with support from Parkour UK through application process. This funding was aimed at bringing those participating less in physical activity into sport.

Train Hard saw this as a great opportunity to engage with women – who are under-represented in Parkour – and introduced 165 new women and girls into Parkour over a series of ‘Intro to Parkour’ sessions for various age groups ranging from 6 years old up to adults.

Viv Jackson, Phoebe Harley and the team at Train Hard created a positive, welcoming environment for a variety of women who were introduced to parkour in The Parkour Project – Train Hard’s venue. 

With a focus on creating an entry point suitable for beginners, the team worked with many women who were completely new to parkour – preparing the women for the sessions and ensuring they felt comfortable:

“I was super nervous…..but everyone has been really kind and friendly and you don’t have to be super fit or super mobile to do it. It [the class] comes with warm ups and all the drills that we do before we do any Parkour. “

Said one participant

The sessions have really helped set a precedent of more women attending the classes at the Parkour Project more regularly with a proportion of the women moving from their ‘Intro to Parkour’ block into the main regular classes. 

The BBC have covered the success of Train Hard’s work in this piece below.

Initiatives like Train Hard’s help to tackle a wider challenge across the UK of engaging women in sport and physical activities. Parkour can be used as a key tool to tackle inequalities in regards to access and attitudes towards taking part in sport. 

“Unfortunately women are less likely to be active now than they were before the pandemic. Women struggle to be active for many reasons, not least because of fear of judgement and feeling unwelcome in sport and physical activity settings. Initiatives like Train Hard’s encourage more women to get active by providing a great atmosphere for them to experience a sense of freedom and fun in a non-judgemental setting. We need more initiatives like this across sport to help women return to activity post-pandemic.” 

Said Liz Prinz of Women in Sport. 

If you are interested in taking part in Parkour at The Parkour Project you can find out more here and if you want to find classes in other areas you can check out Parkour UK’s class finder here.