More than 124,000 people from disadvantaged communities are set to benefit from £8.2 million of National Lottery funding to help them get active, Sport England have announced.
As part of its mission to increase the use of sport for social good, Sport England has allocated money to 46 community projects which use sport to help tackle social problems affecting young people, women and ethnic minorities.
Since 2013, over 200 similar projects have benefited from National Lottery funding.
One of the projects to benefit from the new round of funding is the Jason Roberts Foundation, which will receive more than £150,000 to offer several new and diverse activities such as snag golf. A spin-off from the traditional version of the sport, it uses velcro and is played on astroturf. Snag golf will be used to teach under 25’s the basics of golf before being teamed up with two local golf clubs to receive PGA qualified golf training.
Other projects to receive a share of the National Lottery money include:
• Getting the Inactive Active, a project run by FitCap to get more people under 30 who live under challenging circumstances in East Birmingham and North Solihull. They intend to use the £152,375 of funding to offer ‘Turn Up and Play’ activity sessions to give residents the chance to try a host of different sports.
• A new Be Active project in Swindon run by Swindon and District Mind helping people with mental health problems become more active by offering exercise class taster sessions alongside one-to-one support, as well as training leisure centre staff and club coaches on how to best encourage people with a mental health problems to get involved in sport.
Minister for Sport Tracey Crouch MP said “As sports minister, I want as many people as possible to get active but I also know the powerful social impact sport can have. Whether that’s helping to cut crime, making people healthier, or strengthening bonds between people. The projects receiving National Lottery funding today do all of this and more, and I know they’ll be a huge success."
Sport England’s Director for Community Sport, Mike Diaper said “The 46 projects receiving National Lottery funding today all have compelling plans to use sport as a way of improving the lives of thousands of people. We know that people who live challenging lives face the biggest barriers to getting active – this fund is about breaking the barriers down."
