Sport England and RYA Tackling Inequalities Funding

Five south-west clubs and centres have been allocated grantsfrom the £150,000 of Sport England funding awarded to the RYA to help reducethe negative impact of COVID-19 and the widening of the inequalities in sportand physical activity.

• Plymouth Youth Sailing Club, based at the Mount Batten Centre in Plymouth, has been granted £10k to support its BAME engagement project in 2021.
• Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education Centre will be using their funding to help young people experiencing long term mental ill-health
• Horizons (Plymouth) has designed a project to get six families sailing, delivering the life-enhancing benefits of learning to sail, and creating a better future for them by connecting them with other local organisations that will support them over the longer term.
• The Andrew Simpson Foundation will be supporting young people living with physical or learning disabilities, or struggling with their mental health, by running its Aiming High programme at each of its four UK centres, including Portland, throughout winter 2020/21. Its objective is to see young people develop a positive and healthy attitude towards their own mental health.
• All Aboard Watersports Centre in Bristol will set up 16 x 3-hour sessions where families from BAME communities can learn how to sail, ride in a powerboat, remain active during the pandemic and enjoy being on the water as a family.

Sport England is looking for the funding to be utilised andprojects delivered as soon as practically possible. While the recent lockdownhas had a temporary impact on the launching of these projects, it isanticipated that all will be kickstarted in January and we will be following theirprogress and making further reports over the next few months.