Latest round of Brent grants announced – Wembley National Stadium Trust

Latest round of Brent grants announced

Sport in Brent has once again benefitted from grants awarded by the Wembley National Stadium Trust, this time to the tune of more than £200,000.

At their recent meeting, the trustees approved 32 grants totalling some £209,720, which will benefit local residents of all ages and abilities, helping them to access sporting activities of all kinds. A full list of the grants awarded can be found here.

The great majority of these awards are small grants of £2,500 or less to local groups towards the costs of a weekly activity and to schools for out-of-hours sports clubs.

Further donations were larger sums towards the costs of either more significant capital purchases or larger programmes of work. One of these awards is to help establish a competitive football structure for young people in Brent, to mirror that found in neighbouring boroughs. A boys’ tournament will be held over the 2019 summer holiday period, with a girls competition taking place in spring 2020. Hopefully, this will be the catalyst for more long-term future football structures in the borough.

In this round of grants, the Trust has also provided funds to Middlesex FA and England Netball to support the strategic development of these two sports across Brent. The award to Middlesex FA is a continuation of our support for the work to improve the football infrastructure in the borough. The netball grant is a new initiative, hot on the heels of the success of the England Roses national team, to help meet the demand for more opportunities to play netball in Brent. This will use the well-established programmes that the National Governing Body is already implementing elsewhere, bringing many more players into the game – either for the first time, or after a while away.

Stewart Goshawk, WNST’s Chief Executive Officer said,

“All these grants are further evidence of the Trust’s commitment to local sport in the Stadium’s home borough. I know from going round meeting groups, just how valuable even a small injection of funds can be, to ensure that clubs can remain viable and affordable whilst offering an enjoyable experience. I’m looking forward to visiting many more of the groups we are supporting, to see the funds being put to good use.”

One of the organisations to benefit from this round of grants is the Jason Roberts Foundation, which provides a varied sports offer for residents of the Stonebridge area. JRF Chief Executive, Otis Roberts told us:

“We were really pleased to learn that the Wembley National Stadium Trust has again agreed to support the vital work that we are delivering for young people in the Stonebridge area. It’s great that we were able to welcome the WNST trustees to the Bridgestone Arena recently to talk through what we are looking to achieve here at JRF and for them to see for themselves, the investment in the venue that they have made previously. It was also really helpful to be able to talk through our application with Stewart before submitting it, so that we were confident it stood the best chance of being successful.

This funding will make a real difference to the lives of local young disabled people and builds on the successful disability sports programme that we have been delivering in recent years, with a number of key partners. The chance for them to give different sports a try, within a fully inclusive and family-friendly environment can have such an impact on the participants’ confidence, self-esteem and quality of life outside of sport.

Thanks so much.”