Under a new annual initiative, the Ignite365 Awards, the International Olympic Committee

(IOC) is awarding grants to community projects which are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Ignite365 is an initiative of the newly launched Olympism365 Innovation Hub. This collaboration between the IOC, Beyond Sport and Women Win will invest US$1.2 million in innovative community projects over the next nine months.

Five projects have been chosen from more than 200 global applications for the first Ignite365 awards. They will receive an initial US$10,000 to advance their work, as well as training designed to meet their needs and engagement and networking opportunities.

The awards celebrate those who are using sport in creative ways to address key challenges such as accessibility, inequality, discrimination and plastic recycling.

“The Ignite365 Awards aim to not only support their work but to inspire further innovation and collaboration,” says Ollie Dudfield, IOC Olympism365 associate director.

The winners

From the UK, WeSwim is providing opportunities for people with disabilities to learn to swim using a community-focused and volunteer-led approach.

Papua New Guinea’s Grass Skirt Project is using sport to drive social change, especially gender equality. Shipping containers are repurposed as mobile fitness facilities and taken to community areas.

Fenikks is an Argentina-based project that has established plastic waste collection points in 56 disadvantaged neighbourhoods around the country and transforms it into football shin guards. For every pair sold another pair is donated to football clubs in those areas. So far 3,000 pairs have been donated.

Never Stop Playing Sports, in Japan, supports female student athletes to be active through education, community outreach and awareness-raising programmes.

Touch2see is a French company that has developed a touch-sensitive tablet to help visually impaired people follow live sporting events by providing automated audio descriptions.