London-wide grants programmes
Disability sports programme 2013-17
The Trust’s first London-wide initiative followed the success of the 2012 London Paralympic games and the much-heightened interest in disability sport. But we knew that significant barriers remained preventing many disabled people from participating. We sought to fund innovative sports projects for disabled Londoners, where the work had the potential for widespread replication. We supported eleven organisations with grants worth around £900,000. The flagship project worked in partnership with the FA and the capital’s professional football clubs, to deliver a wide-ranging disability football activities. Several of these initial grants eg to the Lord’s Taverners and Panathlon have led to the establishment of significant national programmes.
Women and girls’ team sports programme 2017-22
TeamUp London
We were keen to address the issue of a decline in participation in team sports by girls and young women, as they pass through their teenage years. Encouraging involvement at a younger age is seen as critical, so we partnered up with the national governing bodies of netball, hockey and cricket in their Team Up programme. This worked with primary schools and local community clubs to train teachers, run more non-curricular clubs and teams and to encourage girls to join their local club. We invested £675,000 over three years which resulted in some 30,000 primary-age schoolgirls in London getting involved in a team sport, 450 teachers with enhanced skills and 65 local clubs increasing their offer for younger girls.
100FC
Separately, we awarded London FA a grant of £120,000 over three years to co-ordinate and run a programme to train up the next generation of female football coaches. With the rapid increase in female participation across the game, there are far too few role models for young girls to be inspired by. 100FC works in partnership with other county FAs, the London professional teams and many grassroots clubs, to skill up and mentor cohorts of women looking to secure their place in the game. The programme has also branched out into projects for aspiring female referees and around volunteering more generally within the game. The final cohort of over 100 coaches will complete their training and qualifications during 2022.
