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Parkour UK

Parkour UK

Digital Safety Principles – Parkour UK

Parkour UK’s social and digital platforms are our main channels of communication with the community. We want our digital spaces to be a safe, inclusive space for discussion and sharing of ideas.

We aim to post on our social media channels almost every day with tips and advice, inspirational stories and the latest events in the community. Additionally we regularly share longer form updates through podcasts, blogs and email.

To ensure everyone has a positive experience, we need your help in keeping our digital spaces safe. These are the behaviours/principles that we would encourage when you engage with our platforms:

Celebrate the diversity of our community

We encourage diversity in our community and welcome all to feel safe and accepted. Consider other’s perspectives and challenges they may face when you are communicating.

Assume positive intent

Be kind and courteous, assume positive intent in others and be respectful of differing opinions. There is a small, dedicated team of people who care deeply about their work at Parkour UK who are happy to support you however they can. All members and executive team should be always respected and treated positively.

Feedback, communicate and criticise

Maintain a professional, polite and constructive manner in communication about Parkour UK on public platforms and in individual communication with the team and board members. Healthy debate, feedback and constructive criticism is encouraged but Parkour UK expects views to be discussed respectfully.

Be helpful

Our goal is to build a community that can share their solutions and work together to grow parkour. If you have an opportunity to support a member or bring something positive to the community please do so – and/or contact Parkour UK so that we can help.

Protective Measures

Parkour UK’s priority is the safety of the staff team and the wider community. Our digital platforms are a workplace and we will have a zero tolerance policy on any behaviour towards our team or our community in the workplace which falls outside of the principles above.

Examples of behaviours that fall outside of the principles would be:

  • Use of derogatory language about or towards any individual(s) or organisation(s).
  • Any action towards Individuals or organisations that could constitute bullying, harassment or intentionally harming another.
  • Attempts to discredit, shame or embarrass members of Parkour UK or the organisation as a whole on our platforms.

Behaving in a way that falls outside the principles above will result in immediate blocking from interaction with any of our social media channels.

  • If the individual(s) responsible for the behaviour are not members, they will not be informed of this action.
  • If they are members they will be informed by email of the action.
  • We will also report the posts using the reporting mechanisms on the relevant social media programme. 

Lifting of any blocking or digital bans is at the discretion of Parkour UK.

Reporting and Contact

If you see something that you think falls outside the principles of this policy you can DM us through any of our social media channels – @parkouruk or email info@parkour.uk

Parkour UK AGM 2022 – Minutes and recording

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 partnership with Sport England

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:

“Parkour is a true lifestyle sport, and we believe that accessibility of sports like these are a key driver of lifelong participation in physical activity, tackling inequality, and in the attitudes people have to staying healthy. 

Parkour UK has a robust strategy for the next four years that moves our organisation from justification to amplification as we aspire to serve the parkour community, help grow our membership, and offer more innovative products. 

The funding from Sport England will enable us to realise our ambitions and will make a positive contribution to people from all demographics being able to take part. This investment will go a long way to progressing the sport in the UK.”

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 sees increase in women in Parkour after funding support from local council

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

Movement Park in Glasgow Job Roles

Movement Park in Glasgow currently has two roles advertised which incorporate Parkour into their wider development – Community Officer and Pathways Officer.

These roles may be suited to a person who has experience of Parkour, but also of working in youth or community development.

You can see the Ads and Role Descriptions Below:

  • Community Officer Ad
  • Community Officer Role Description
  • Pathways Officer Ad
  • Pathways Officer Role Description
  • For more information visit movementpark.org.uk

    Welcome Tracy

    At our September board meeting we welcomed Tracy Rea to Parkour UK, replacing Steve Mitchell as the independent chair of Parkour UK.

    Tracy was appointed through open recruitment and voted on by our members. The specialist skills that the appointment was based on are leadership, governance, understanding of the sports landscape in the UK and people & workforce. Parkour UK worked with Sam Coppack and his ‘Parkour Coach Companion’ podcast to produce an interview with Tracy which covers many angles.

    • Who are you what is your background?
    • What is the appeal of parkour and Parkour UK for you?
    • What Parkour have you seen / what do you understand?
    • What do you think are the immediate priorities?
    • With your understanding of the sports sector, what are the opportunities for Parkour UK?
    • How are you considering the importance of the community….how do you want to see this evolve?

    The interview can be heard in full on YouTube here and on Spotify here. Please note that it was recorded in August 2021.

    Colleagues on the board and the executive team are pleased to welcome Tracy to Parkour UK and are excited about the future.