The communities and projects were identified from our national programmes of work to date who reflected the Youth Charter’s philosophy, mission, aims and objectives were brought together to experience the spirit of the Games. The aim was to provide an opportunity that would hopefully see social and cultural benefits that a once in a lifetime chance like this would provide. The Youth Charter HQ at Salford Quays was identified as host HQ to the Connecting Communities programme delivery. The Connecting Communities programme supported by the 2002 Host Organising Committee and the Guardian Media Group was an exciting as well as challenging culmination of the Youth Charter then 9-year journey to date. Identified as the youth culture strategy of the successful bidding and securing of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the challenge was in translating the social, cultural and cohesive community benefits of a major sporting event to disaffected young people from 10 disadvantaged communities in the UK that the Youth Charter had worked with to date.