New brand identity for county sports partnership

Energize, the county sports partnership for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, is rebranding itself to reflect the broadening of its aims and objectives.

The Shrewsbury-based team, which has its headquarters at Frankwell Quay, wants to emphasise the fact that its focus is on encouraging people to lead an all-round active lifestyle, rather than purely concentrating on sport.

England’s network of county sports partnerships met in Nottingham this week for its annual convention, and announced the launch of the new ‘Active Partnerships’ brand name, which Energize will be adopting.

Lee Mason, chief executive of Active Partnerships, said: “We recognise that the needs of our partners and communities are changing.

“Levels of physical activity remain worryingly low and are affected by a complex system of influences, which means no single organisation or intervention can create sustainable change at scale. 

“So we need to think and act differently, and over the last year we have been changing to strengthen our approach to better tackle these issues.

“This has included confirming our long-term future partnership with Sport England to help deliver the national strategy, Towards an Active Nation, and a shift from programme delivery to a whole system, place-based approach.

“Our name change to Active Partnerships is the culmination of this work, and we believe it better reflects our role and purpose.”

Energize, which is one of the 43 partnerships, has confirmed it will be embracing this change, and updating its branding to reflect the change in focus.

Chief executive Chris Child said: “Combining the key words of ‘active’ and ‘partnership’ really resonates with our current strategic aims. It is our ambition to improve lives across the county through reducing inactivity.

“We have long recognised that sport alone is not the answer for the majority of people, young or old, and we seek to work with many other local organisations to help people become more active - and in doing so improve their physical and mental well-being.”