Integration through sport
Integration through sport

Integration through sport

Through sport, Sanctuary Runners encourages mutual understanding, inclusion, and community integration, showing how movement can bring people together across cultures and experiences. Our integration-through-sport model is simple and easy to replicate, enabling anyone to set up a group and bring communities together wherever they are.

Our approach recognises that people seeking international protection in particular face additional barriers to their participation, and we design our programmes to help overcome them.

We support integration by:

  • Reaching out to and including members of migrant communities, bringing them together with local residents.
  • Providing safe and accessible spaces – creating welcoming environments for running, walking, and physical activity where everyone feels included.
  • Ensuring inclusive practices – actively welcoming people of all abilities, backgrounds, and experiences, and promoting respect and understanding.
  • Offering practical support – assisting with transport, equipment and information to make participation easy and accessible for everyone.
  • Encouraging peer connections and mentoring – fostering friendships, community networks, and mutual support among participants.
  • Sharing our model with others – supporting people who reach out to set up their own Sanctuary Runners groups in their communities, helping them implement the same inclusive and supportive approach.

We believe this work is important because sport has a unique power to connect people, break down barriers, and promote mutual understanding. At Sanctuary Runners, every run, walk, and event is an opportunity to celebrate diversity, foster inclusion, and strengthen communities through movement.