ABOUT CONSTRUCTION SPORT

Construction Sport is built to provide sporting opportunities for construction workers to enjoy themselves, in doing so this allows us to let off steam in a positive environment.

Within the Construction industry physical health and safety has been prioritised, the protocols that have been introduced have been made significant improvements, the statistics prove this, on-site fatalities have dropped significantly over the past decades, but that’s just half the battle.

Construction Sport has been launched to give the Construction workforce the opportunity of much needed downtime, away from the tools, away from laptops, away from the stresses of day to day life. By doing this we create opportunities for people to enjoy themselves, let their hair down and address their mental health.

By building teams, we save lives.

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“As Construction workers we aren’t checked to see if we are ok, however plant and machinery gets checked every day.”

– Steve Kerslake (As mentioned on the Ether Podcast with Ant Middleton)

OUR ACTIONS

Hours upon hours are invested in on-site and off-site training. We have regular updates regarding:

Safety briefing
Safety alerts
Near misses
Lessons learnt
Working at height
People plant interface
An endless plethora of information and rules to ensure everyone remains safe

As a construction worker, it is a challenge to find almost anything that is communicated about our mental health. We want to give that little bit of hope, showing construction workers that it is a topic that is worth talking about, and getting word out there to make people realise how important our work is.

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We chose to use sport as the conduit for change. Sport is universally enjoyed, whether it be playing, watching or just following from afar, sport has the effect of bringing people together and most of the time bringing people joy. Factor in the health benefit of sports and the escape from day-to-day life, sport just makes sense as the perfect fit for our mission.

Our jobs as construction workers can often make being involved in sports difficult, working unsociable hours to provide for our families and ourselves. This often means construction workers simply don’t have the time or energy to do sports in their free time.

We want to make that different and create a pathway to holding down a job whilst also getting in a healthy amount of sports and excerise activities, allowing construction workers to not only improve themselves physically but socially too, with sport and exercise having the ability to play matchmaker in finding new friends.

Knowing that you are not alone as a construction worker can save lives, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to be that shoulder to lean on.

At Construction Sport we are bringing the industry together, promoting the huge benefits that sport can have on driving positive change into our industry.

We have got to make a stand, we have got to come together, the shocking statistics are not acceptable.

Together we can make a difference.

THE FOUNDERS’ STORY

In September 2019 Construction Sport Founder Steve Kerslake was on the verge of gaining official charity status, with this part of the plan coming to fruition it was time to source avenues for much needed funding.

Opting not to go down the typical route of charitable grants and bucket shaking Steve did things the way he has been known to do things many times, the hard way!

Literally knocking door to door approaching construction businesses asking them to back a very loose, unheard-of way of addressing the mental health in the construction sector, as many people did, they told Steve in a polite way to Foxtrot Oscar. Completely understandable, for Steve’s head and ideas are very much from a very different place to your average member of society.

However, there was a breakthrough! A lifeline! A little bit of hope!

5 people, 5 directors of 4 construction businesses, not so much believed in Steve, but probably just felt a little bit sorry for him. They leant out their hand to help get things moving. Big breakthrough, However, just a few months into the new partnership and very soon after the launch event of 2020 the world shut down due to covid.

Everything planned came crashing down, however these four businesses did not question a thing, they simply said hold tight we are here, and we will see this through together, when we come out the other side buy us a beer.

Those four businesses will always be known as the founding partners that made this all possible.