EFDS partnership among successful Make Your Move projects
A further 13 leisure trusts across the country are to benefit from Sport England Lottery Funding to deliver innovative projects to engage inactive people in sport.
The £571,112 allocated marks the second round of funding from the Make Your Move programme, which is driven by sporta, the UK’s representative body for sport and leisure trusts who are all non-distributing profit organisations.
Sport England set aside £2 million of National Lottery funding for the three-year Make Your Move programme and sporta members can apply for up to £50,000, which they must match fund. To date a total of £1.27 million has been allocated from Make Your Move across 29 different projects, representing a total programme value of £2.7 million.
Designed to meet the needs of their own community, the projects vary in content and size, but are focused on increasing participation in sport within their local area. Projects in the second round of funding include new national partnerships with well-known organisations, including the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS), Slimming World, Older Men’s Network and The Football League Trust.
Designed in partnership with the English Federation of Disability Sport and Active Cheshire, Live Wire Warrington will launch Inclusive Fitness Warrington, which aims to increase participation in sport amongst disabled adults aged 26+.
The project offers a varied programme of integrated and parallel activities, adapted so they are accessible to all, which supports EFDS’s vision that disabled people are active for life. The programme will see LiveWire employ a new Activator who will engage with local partners and support delivery within community settings as well as enabling sessions within LiveWire’s facilities.
Active Luton, in partnership with the Older Men’s Network, Active Tameside, Fusion Lifestyle (Charnwood) and Carlisle Leisure, will launch Walking Sport for Older Men, a 12-month project to engage inactive older men in at least 1 x 30 minutes of sporting activity per week.
Adapted sports, such as walking football and walking rugby, will be offered to older men prevented from being active by social isolation, injuries, illness and a lack of confidence and opportunities across five local authority areas in the East, East Midlands and North West. The project aims to recruit, train and support older men to become ‘buddies’ and act as peer mentors to other men in the groups, with expert training and support from the Older Men’s Network through Age Concern Central Lancashire.
A new partnership between Sporta and The Football League Trust is being piloted through Doncaster Culture and Leisure Trust in partnership with Club Doncaster Foundation. Together they have been awarded funding for Doncaster Moving Together, which aims to increase participation in sport by 300 local people aged 35 to 55 at four venues. In order to feel part of the project and the club, participants will be recruited through social media platforms, Doncaster Rovers FC fan base, and match day awareness sessions, and will enjoy player visits and physical activity incentives.
Led by Foundation coaches, the project will offer badminton, cricket and football, initially in an informal, fun and non-competitive environment. The 12-week sessions will become slightly more formal and may form into mini leagues and competitions across the four venues.
Hyndburn Leisure Trust is set to launch Active Mums, which aims to increase participation in sport by 415 females. Designed in consultation with children’s centres, toddler groups and community nurseries, the project will target inactive mums with young children whose main barrier to participation is lack of childcare and particularly Eastern European women who are a growing demographic group in Hyndburn.
The project offers 12 weeks of activities in accessible locations with childcare provided, but will also focus on outdoor physical activity with activities such as buggy fitness and walk to run groups. To help sustain the project, Hyndburn Leisure Trust aims to develop opportunities for participants to become volunteers and potentially paid instructors/leaders of the activities.
Other trusts awarded funding in Round Two include:
- Pendle Leisure Trust and Active Nation have teamed up with Slimming World and its BodyMagic programme to engage people from the Colne area of Pendle, and from Southampton in physical activity. The trusts will work closely with Slimming World throughout the 12-month project to feedback research on the barriers and motivations to physical activity within their target market.
- Dacorum (Sportspace), delivering ‘Herts Active Together’ in partnership with Stevenage Leisure, Finesse Leisure, Hertsmere Leisure, YMCA West and Central Hertfordshire for an over 65s programme
- Haringey Sports Development Trust’s ‘Haringey on the Move’, targeting inactive young people with mentoring, qualifications and volunteering opportunities.
- Kirklees Active Leisure’s ‘Born to be Active’ project in partnership with a local community health service provider, targeting new parents with swimming, post natal exercise and buggy walks etc.
- Link4Life’s (Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust) ‘More Than Dance’ project in partnership with EMDP, which focusses on creative dance and builds on a successful dance week introduced as part of the Cultural Olympiad 2012.
- Tone Leisure’s ‘Forever Active’ project in Taunton Deane will deliver two new specific sessions. One for adults 50+ with BMI of +25, and one for adults aged 65+ with long term health conditions.
- Vision Redbridge ‘Family Fit and Fun’ has been designed after consultation with over 400 local pregnant women and parents with children under five. Delivered with essential partners - the Borough’s 16 Children’s Centres – new tailored activities focusing on the needs of the parent/s will be offered to meet to help encourage their active participation.
- Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust ‘Park Workout’ delivered at new outdoor gyms in two local parks and includes the wider parks for other group-based, instructor-led sport and activity.
Sport England’s Director of Property, Charles Johnston, said:
“Leisure trusts play a key part in delivering high quality sports projects in towns and cities across the country. This investment in the 13 projects for Sporta’s Make Your Move programme will give people the opportunity to take part in a way that most suits them, and get more people, more active, more often.”
Brian Leonard, Sporta’s CEO said:
“This Round Two award of £571,112 from Sport England for the Sporta Make Your Move programme, shows the great ability and enthusiasm of sporta trusts to help more people in their communities become more active. The trusts have again come forward with a wide range of imaginative proposals and the 13 new projects we have been able to approve will add to the learning we are gaining from the three projects in the pilot round and the 13 projects approved in Round One. The approach we are taking in this partnership with Sport England will ensure that all this information and experience will be gathered and shared widely over the coming year.”
A third round of funding will be allocated early in 2015. Anyone wishing to apply should contact categillingwater@sporta.org. Further information on the programme can be found on the Make Your Move website or tweet @sportaUK #makeyrmove.
