We’ve been working closely with organisations in Gosport for a long time. Our work on the Hampshire Active Health Programme supported seven organisations to directly deliver activities for Gosport.  We’ve also supported nine Gosport Health Practices to support their patients and staff be more active by achieving Active Practice Charter.

The latest funding from Sport England will help us to expand on this work, by helping to build and support an empowered community, to make it easier for people to live an active lifestyle.

Inactivity rates in Gosport have been gradually increasing for the last eight years, with recent figures estimating that over 12,000 adults living locally do no activity at all. We want to build on all the work already happening to get inactivity levels moving in the right direction.

Sport England’s Place Need Classification, which considers inactivity levels alongside social and health needs, suggests work could be most impactful in Gosport Town, Bridgemary North and Bridgemary South.

We’re already connected to a strong and a well-established network with broad representation across public health, local government and the VCSE sector working to support communities in Gosport.

In early 2026 we’ll be exploring how to get more people involved. We’ll connect other strategic networks together with this work, with learning workshops to guide collaborative discussions and by providing coaching around system and place leadership.

We want people living in Gosport to know how to influence what opportunities are available in their town. A participatory grantmaking scheme will recruit adult community members, where they’ll be trained, and paid for their time and expertise, so they can be responsible for key aspects of a grant making process. This includes:

• Setting the funding priorities and process
• Reviewing grant applications
• Deciding who receives the funding in Gosport

To support young people, we’re working with Unloc on a leadership academy for young people, so they feel empowered to affect what physical activity looks like for their school and advocate for their peers. The academy will run in the 2026 Spring Term at Bridgemary School.

In each of our places we’re working with partners and the community to check and challenge our understanding of each place and use their feedback to shape the work.

You may also be interested in our other work and programmes that run across the whole of Hampshire and Isle of Wight.

If you would like to know more, or how to get involved get in touch.

Data and Insight

The data and insight used to inform the approach in Gosport came from the following sources

• Sport England Active Lives Survey
• Sport England Active Lives – Children and Young People
• Sport England Place Needs Classification
• Hampshire and Isle of Wight JSNA
• Census 2021
• Office For National Statistics