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Mission

swift 2The SWIFT Research Centre seeks to support research and development in sport, physical education and physical activity more broadly across the lifespan and its intersections with well-being and health, inclusion (and social justice) and faith and spirituality.

Our mission is to make a difference and enhance knowledge and inform practice in our focus areas through the production of high-quality applied research and development activities with partners. 

Whilst our remit is broad and naturally will evolve over time, we are particularly interested in recognising the value of sport, physical education and physical activity for personal and, professional as well as social and community development. Based in a university setting, we are very interested in supporting the development of teaching and learning activities in sport and physical education where these engage with community partners.

Background

The SWIFT Research Centre was launched early in 2020 and was established to respond to a recognition of growing awareness of the potential of sport, physical education and physical activity for holistic human health and social development.  The stimulus for the development of SWIFT arose from a timely opportunity to adopt the John Paul II Foundation for Sport (JP2F4S) with its focus on sport for holistic youth development led by Monsignor Father Vladimir Feltzmann who is now a member of the SWIFT committee and a visiting professor at St Marys University. 

SWIFT is staffed by ‘pracademics’ – i.e. academics with relevant practical experience and research expertise in diverse fields, including:

  • Physical education teaching and learning
  • Positive youth development and lifeskills
  • Physical literacy and fundamental movement skills
  • Inclusion and social justice in sport and physical education
  • Sports coaching practices and science
  • Professional development in sport, physical education and physical activity
  • Spirituality, faith in sport and physical activity
  • Community-engaged learning / Service Learning.

These specialisms and the breadth of our research expertise have enabled staff SWIFT to support a wide range of initiatives such as:

  • Best practice and expert statements
  • Evaluation and impact projects
  • Professional observations and analyses
  • Proof of concept reviews
  • Designing and/or hosting events and conferences
  • Professional development events (staff training)
  • Mentoring
  • Professional guidance
  • Community learning initiatives.  

The staff work with a wide range of organisations including schools, national governing bodies in sport, professional body organisations, faith groups as well as sports and other charities. We aim to make a difference to people and our community partners by supporting good practice and knowledge development in how we thoughtfully facilitate and evaluate sport, physical education and physical activities.

Get in touch

To get in touch, please email Dr Abbe Brady (she/her), Director of SWIFT Research Centre (Sport, Wellbeing, Inclusion and Faith) at abbe.brady@stmarys.ac.uk