Today Sport England has announced that it will provide National Lottery funding of up to £1 million for women and BAME coaches/volunteers, in a bid to help increase diversity in the sport and physical activity sector.
With both Coaching Week and Volunteers’ Week taking place right now, this National Lottery funding has been allocated to address the ‘fragmented workforce – partly comprised of coaches and volunteers – that is currently lacking diversity’, according to the public organisation, dedicated to helping people and communities across the country get a sporting habit for life.
“Up and down the country, amazing people are doing amazing things to support people in their community to become more active. They are the unsung heroes, the backbone of physical activity. We know that these people make the difference and we’re hoping to help these people to do more and help others to get involved,” stated Sport England.
TARGETING DIVERSE APPLICANTS
This is certainly true of coaches and volunteers from diverse backgrounds. “We regularly hear fantastic stories of women and people from BAME communities getting involved and making a difference to people around them,” added Sport England. “But we know that there are barriers facing them in getting started, so we’re keen to find ways that we can support more people from these backgrounds into the sport and physical activity workforce, and to help ensure they have a really positive experience once they are engaged.”
Its ambition is to help ‘ensure people working in sport and physical activity are skilled, motivated, valued, equipped for their role, are enjoying a positive experience and is representative of our diverse nation’.
ENGAGING IDEAS WANTED
“Learning what works to engage and support these audiences into volunteering and coaching is key and we want to work with you to learn what approaches work and why,” commented Sport England’s head of coaching, Stuart Armstrong. “There are any number of potential learning opportunities. Maybe you’re planning an unusual partnership, or want to test ways of using new technology to get women engaged in volunteering. Perhaps your organisation has never had any connection with sport before, but has something different to offer within a sport or physical activity setting. Whatever your ideas, we’re keen to find out what we can discover together.”
It doesn’t matter what stage of development your idea is at. It can be an idea on paper, or something already being delivered which you think has the potential to be scaled up or replicated with a different audience or in a new community. The Workforce Diversity Great Ideas Fund will be open for a month, from today, and Sport England wants to hear from anyone wanting to engage women and/or BAME communities in volunteering or coaching opportunities.
Applications can be submitted between now and 3rd July 2019, then Sport England’s team will assess submissions and contact selected projects to develop a full application in August and September. Final decisions on funding will then be made in October and November 2019. For more information, or to apply check out: https://www.sportengland.org/funding/workforce-diversity-great-ideas-fund/
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