World and European Champion Bruce Mouat and European bronze medallist Gina Aitken are among 21 athletes selected to join the Powered by Purpose programme, an initiative to enable athletes to use their platform, passion and commitment to make a difference and inspire positive social change.
Following the success of the pilot, the second edition of the Powered by Purpose Programme, delivered by UK Sport in partnership with The True Athlete Project, is about to get underway. 
Twenty-one athletes from a diverse range of sports and backgrounds will benefit from a six-month programme designed to empower them to use their platform as prominent sportspeople to make a difference to society while they are still competing.
Athletes from various Olympic and Paralympic sports, who are at differing stages of their competitive careers, will attend a series of workshops and mentoring sessions to learn how to use their voice and influence for the greater good.
Those taking part will hope to achieve the same levels of success as those enjoyed by the first cohort to complete a pilot version of the programme in 2022-23. Two time Paralympian and World bronze medallist Hugh Nibloe was among that first cohort of 20 athletes.
Every one of the participants said they now had greater confidence to make a difference on social issues, felt equipped with tools and resources to address social challenges, and believed their enhanced strengths would enable them to make a social impact.
Those outcomes align strongly with one of the key pillars of UK Sport’s current ten-year strategy, which is to Inspire Positive Change. UK Sport believes athletes can contribute in this way to a happier, prouder and more connected society.
The programme ensures that athletes develop as people as well as performers. They should move forward with a sense of autonomy as they use their platform to make an impact in a context that has meaning to them. 
The success of the first cohort to complete Powered by Purpose demonstrates how much social impact Olympic and Paralympic athletes can achieve, and adds to the value and viability of the investment made by the British public in elite sport in this country.
Dame Katherine Grainger, chair of UK Sport, said: “I’m delighted to welcome the second cohort of athletes to the Powered by Purpose programme. The success of the pilot programme, and those who took part in it, was a source of enormous pride to me and to everyone at UK Sport. It is brilliant to be partnering with the fantastic team at The True Athlete Project to deliver this programme once again.
“It’s so encouraging to see that many athletes genuinely want to use their platform and influence to make a difference to social causes that matter to them.
“I wish the new group of athletes every success in their work on the programme, and look forward to watching them explore the positive social impact that is so important to us all.”
Laurence Halsted, Director of Mentoring at The True Athlete Project and Powered by Purpose Programme Lead,
"We are always so excited to welcome a new group of athletes in one of our programmes, and this is particularly special because it so clearly represents the cultural shift that we want to see in performance sport. These are athletes who are absolutely committed to their sport but also want to make a positive impact on the world around them, and crucially they recognise that those two desires are not in opposition but are symbiotic."
