Encouraging active lifestyles through sport

Encouraging young people to be more physically active is a central part of our community approach. We do this by supporting community-based programmes, and investing in research to understand the best ways of encouraging young people to take part in physical activity.

Special Olympics GB - 30 years of Coca-Cola Great Britain support

June 2008 marked the 30^th anniversary of the Special Olympics in Great Britain and we're proud to say that Coca-Cola Great Britain has supported them throughout. Globally, we've been affiliated with the event since 1968- supporting the movement through cash donations, in-kind products and marketing services.

Special Olympics GB currently has over 8,000 participants with learning disabilities who benefit from a volunteer-led programme of sports training and competition to help develop their social and life skills.

Through the Coca-Cola Youth Foundation's annual funding, we provide vital running costs for the charity. But our support goes further than that:

• We provide drinks for athletes and participants at many of their regional and national competitions.
• During the year, we were pleased to support the charity in other ways to help them reach their target of raising £1million. Our loyalty website CokeZone encouraged members to donate points to the charity, which translated to extra cash for athletic equipment.
• Over the year CokeZone participants - along with matched points from Coca-Cola GB - raised the target of 1 million points for Special Olympics GB. We also sponsored their annual Gala Fundraising dinner and reception in Whitehall, which helped the charity raise further funds for the coming year.
• Our employees have also invested personal time, effort and passion in establishing and helping to run the local Special Olympics sports clubs in Hammersmith & Fulham, London. Money raised by employees year-round is invested in delivering four sports clubs in football, swimming, athletics and boccia for local people with learning difficulties

Minute Maid Schools Cup

Since 2003, we've been proud sponsors of the Minute Maid Schools Cup - the English Schools Football Association (ESFA) official under-13 tournament. With as many as 40,000 boys and girls from over 2,000 schools entering the tournament, it's become the largest of its kind in Europe.

In 2009, the final took place at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster and two schools were crowned the champions for 2008/09:

• West Bridgford boys school from Nottingham
• Haberdashers' Askes Knights Academy girls school from Kent

The under 13 age group is very important in the development of the youngster as a player and a person. Competing in a national competition helps their education and development - and not just in football.

John Read,
Chief Executive,
English Schools Football Association

Minute Maid Welsh Schools Cup Final

We also support the Minute Maid Welsh Schools Cup. Over 180 schools and colleges entered the cup in June 2008. September through to January, 17,000 boys and 4,500 girls competed in the regional rounds of the event. The national finals were played in May 2009 at New Saints FC, Park Hall, Oswestry.

Minute Maid, through the Finals Weekend, has created a legacy for Welsh Schools Football.

Chris Whitley
Chief Executive
Welsh Schools Football Association

Coca-Cola 7s

The Coca-Cola 7s is Scotland's biggest secondary school seven-a-side tournament. Players of all abilities are encouraged to take part with free skills training given to all participants by ex-professionals players and coaches.

Over 52,000 players have taken part since 2000/01 - generating over 252,000 hours of physical activity. In 2008 the winning teams were:

• Dunfermline High School for the girls
• Prestwick Academy for the boys

Greatfun2run

In 2009, CCGB funded a school-based physical activity programme called Greatfun2run.

More than 17,000 children in the North East of England took part in the programme, which was created and delivered by sports and recreation company, Nova International.

The programme was independently evaluated by scientists at Loughborough University to assess its effectiveness at improving levels of physical activity in 7-11 year olds. The plan was to share any findings with other interested stakeholders, who may also be influencing, funding or directing similar programs.

Find out more about Greatfun2run in our Encouraging Active Lifestyles section. (link to marketing 2.3.4)

Wayne Rooney's Street Striker

In July 2008, CCGB launched 'Coke Zero' Presents: Wayne Rooney's Street Striker - a nationwide competition to find the country's most skilful street footballers between the age of 14 and 18.

Successful players were short listed to go head-to-head in front of Rooney over a series of street football challenges, which were shown in three programmes on Sky One.

The best player, 16-year-old Travis Beckford, was crowned 2008's Coke Zero Street Striker. He won a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to Rio de Janeiro - the home of street football.