Thatcham CEO awarded OBE in King’s New Year Honours List for outstanding services to young people and education

A Thatcham man has been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours List for his outstanding services to young people and education.

Mark Lawrie has worked in sport and education for more than 25 years and is currently the chief executive of StreetGames, a charity providing affordable and accessible sports opportunities to disadvantaged children.

Mr Lawrie, also the founding chief executive of Get Berkshire Active, said he was “gobsmacked” to receive the honour.

“I couldn't quite believe what was written in the first few lines,” he told newburytoday.

“I hope it will help me support the causes I care about even more.”

“On behalf of the StreetGames Board, I congratulate Mark on his well-deserved honour,” added StreetGames chair John Cove.

“It is fantastic to see Mark’s work validated in this public way as the commitment, innovation and efforts he makes above and beyond often goes unseen but are central to how he drives the organisation forward to make a real difference to children and young people’s lives up and down the country.”

Under Mr Lawrie’s leadership, StreetGames has expanded its activities to support more than 1,600 community-based sports clubs and youth organisations nationwide through initiatives such as Doorstep Sport, which brings accessible and engaging sports opportunities directly to young people.

Mr Lawrie, who has lived in Thatcham since 2006 and Reading before that, explained the charity is currently working alongside Thames Valley Police to help train organisations providing sport activities in Reading and Slough with how to support the wider needs of the young people they come into contact with.

And discussing the benefits of the charity’s work in helping to improve young people’s mental wellbeing and reduce youth crime, he added: “The sport and physical activity the local organisations we support provide has a really significant impact on mental wellbeing.

“But one of the main aspects from a mental health perspective is having a trusted adult around for these young people who they can rely on, because very often for the young people we work with, their parents are having to work two jobs, so they don't have that much time to spend with them.

“And then from the criminal justice perspective, we've worked with Loughborough University for 10 years now, really carefully building evidence about how the work that sport can provide in communities has an impact on young people's identity.

“A lot of what used to be around was about diversion and keeping young people off the streets.

“But actually, what we know is if you provide sport and physical activity in the right way, you actually support young people to be pro-social rather than anti-social.

“They develop good communication skills, leadership skills, things that steer them away from other ways of behaving just through the nature of the activity they're involved in.”

And speaking more about why he got involved in helping young people to start with, Mr Lawrie continued: “I trained as a teacher in Birmingham back in the mid-90s.

“A lot of the kids in the schools I was teaching in had nothing. Their parents worked really hard, but they couldn't afford to go on holiday.

“But I saw firsthand how sport gave them that sense of success and purpose.

“I suppose I've got this belief, which probably comes from my mum, to be honest, about social justice. I want to see that access for as many children as possible.

“And I know from all the work we've done how being involved in sport and physical activity can have such a positive impact early on in young people's lives and set them up well for the future.”