Black Swimming Association partners with Community Leisure UK

Published on: July 8th 2021

The Black Swimming Association (BSA) and CommunityLeisure UK (CLUK) have announced a newpartnership, working towards a future with ethnic diversity in aquatics.

Community Leisure UK is the members’ association that specialises in charitable trusts delivering public leisure and culture services across the UK. The organisation represents 112 leisure and culture trusts in England, Scotland and Wales, who in turn employ over 100,000 members andwelcome over 400 million visitors a year[1].

The partnership agreement is the first of its kind between the organisations and represents a significant commitment to tackle the existing inequalitiesin the aquatics sector.

“We are thrilled to have the backing and support of Community Leisure UK”, said Danielle Obe, Chair and co-founder of the BSA. “I’m confident that by bringing the strengths of the two organisations together, we can make real change in the aquatics sector.”

The partnership will see the BSA and CLUK with its members addressing barriers preventing engagement in aquatics, increasing the participation of people from African, Caribbean, and Asian communities and understanding the aquatic behaviours of these communities.

CLUK will work to provide a nationwide platform for public leisure providers to discuss and address ethnic diversity within aquatics, while the BSA willbring its expertise and relations with the targeted communities to provide visibility, build trust and bridge them with the sector.

CLUK also aims to prioritise workforce diversification within public leisure, including equal access and opportunities, as well as encouraging diversity in leadership positions.

“We are delighted to formalise a partnership with the BSA and look forward to working together to address some of the challenges within aquatics”, commented Kirsty Cumming, CEO of CLUK. “The BSA will bring expertise to support our members with their work and ambitions, and our members can offer insight to the challenges from an operator perspective.”


[1] Figures based on pre-Covid19 pandemic data from the CLUK membership

About The Black Swimming Association

The Black Swimming Association (BSA) is a non-profit organisation set up to highlight swimming as an essential and invaluable life-saving skill for all communities. We work to promote the education of African, Caribbean and Asian communities on water safety, drowning prevention measures, and benefits of swimming. Ultimately, by collaborating with national swim governing bodies, brands and other charities, the BSA wants to drive participation, engagement and inclusion for these communities in aquatics.

The Black Swimming Association (The BSA) is a non-profitorganisation registered in England and Wales, registration no. 12832788. Registered Office 71 – 75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ

To find out more visit: https://www.thebsa.co.uk/

About Community Leisure UK

Community Leisure UK is a members’ association that specialises in charitable trusts delivering public leisure and culture services across the UK who champion and protect the trust modelby enabling networking and knowledge sharing withpeers and external stakeholders. There are two core strands to Community Leisure UK’s work, providing a nationwide platformen abling members to meet peers and access strategic partners to find best practice solutions to common problems and recommendations to tacklefuture industry developments, and using the power of the collective membership to represent, reach, influence and promote the charitable trust model benefits at a national level, to inform policy and increase understanding of the trust model.