Nation-wide movement launched to get Singaporeans to enjoy sports in all ways

Singapore, are you ready to play? This is the Singapore Sports Council (SSC)'s call-out to all Singaporeans - the young, the elderly, working adults, families and the disabled. "Let's Play" is a nation-wide movement initiated by the SSC to promote a mindset change and encourage everyone in Singapore to be involved in sports, in all ways, at all times, simply because they enjoy it. It supports various initiatives to promote a sporting culture. The 'Let's Play' brand aims to trigger the emotions of all Singaporeans to increase their interest to participate in sports for a variety of reasons, because "sports energises life through its diverse offer of enjoyable moments and shared experiences".   'Let's Play' was launched by Mr Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and Transport (MOT) at Suntec City today. Mr Teo said, "While sports participation rates are at an all time high (48% in 2005), research conducted by SSC's brand consultants showed that people in Singapore participate in sports mostly for health and fitness. Many gave feedback that there is an immense untapped opportunity for people to enjoy the emotional benefits of sports. There is also opportunity for enjoying sports in more ways than one. Instead of just playing a sport, one can also watch, cheer, spectate and volunteer. The simple proposition for Let's Play is 'sports energises life through its diverse offering of enjoyable moments and shared experiences'."   In support of the 'Let's Play' movement, the SSC will rollout initiatives to make it easier, more accessible and fun to be involved in sports in more ways.   One Stop Local Sports Portal to Facilitate Play and Entertain A one stop, integrated portal for the local sports scene? www.singaporesports.sg has been launched to facilitate play and provide entertainment. The portal will make it easy for people to find out what sports events are happening in town, where to play sports and book sports facilities online, how to play sports, who to play sports with, where to find other online sports communities and have fun - all in one convenient online location. For a start, the portal will feature eight sports and provide a platform for the local sports community to meet, exchange ideas and learn from one another. It will also include updated information on ways the general public can participate in sports, whether it is through major events, community initiatives or at Sports Recreation Centres (SRCs). They will be able to view delayed broadcasts for certain sports tournaments, blog, subscribe to newsletters, get sports news articles and even find a sports "kaki" on the new portal. More sports will be added at a later date.   Enhanced Sports Education Programme to Promote More Opportunities for Play in Schools The SSC introduced the Sports Education Programme (SEP) in primary schools to junior colleges in April 2007, to encourage sports participation in schools and increase sporting opportunities for the young. The programme was recently enhanced to include two new categories - Sports Development and Sports Leagues. The Sports Leagues category provides opportunities for schools to organise intra-school competitions (e.g. inter-class competitions) that take place over a prolonged period of time, where participating teams have the opportunity to play each other (e.g. weekly or twice a week etc) in the chosen sporting activity. This latest change will provide more play opportunities for every child, in support of one of the recommendations in the Sporting Culture Committee Report.   SSC Sports Facilities to Take on a Fun Look, More Fields Open for Play Singaporeans can also expect a more fun and lively look at the SSC's sports facilities. Starting first with SSC's Woodlands, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong West, Tampines and Hougang SRCs by June 2008 and the rest of SSC's facilities by March 2009. To make play more accessible, the SSC has been working with its sister agencies to open up fields for public use. To date, there are 120 school fields, which are opened to the public for sports and recreational use, during weekends. This is an increase of 70 school fields from 2007. Moving forward, even more fields will be opened up to the public for their use.   Fun publicity initiatives to increase the public's awareness of 'Let's Play' In order to communicate the 'Let's Play' movement to everyone in Singapore, the SSC will be embarking on a publicity initiative starting with a television commercial and advertisements in newspapers from 7 May 2008 onwards. There will be even a contest at Orchard MRT where the public has to guess the sports featured. In addition, roadshows will be held at different venues around Singapore to entice the public to participate in sports. More details on this will be available on www.singaporesports.sg   About 'Let's Play''Let's Play' is a nation-wide movement by the Singapore Sports Council to encourage everyone in Singapore to involved in sports, in all ways, at all times, simply because they enjoy it. Be it playing, watching, cheering, spectating, volunteering, the 'Let's Play' movement seeks to "Energise life through sports' diverse offer of enjoyable moments and shared experiences."