Sport England Together Fund
The Sport England Together Fund enables community groups to continue supporting people to be engaged and active. This funding was previously known as the Tackling Inequalities Fund.
The Sport England Together Fund (previously the Tackling Inequalities Fund) exists to help support the communities hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in terms of their opportunities to be physically active.
There were four key audiences for the funding:
- Lower socio-economic groups
- Culturally diverse communities
- Disabled people
- People with long-term health conditions.
Since its launch, the Together Fund has enabled community groups to continue to exist and engage with their communities, supporting people to be engaged and active.
Read more on the Together Fund via Sport England here
Please note: We are no longer taking applications for the Together Fund.
Our story so far...
Every phase of the Together Fund has enabled us to build new relationship with local organisations within Greater Manchester and strengthen existing relations between us and our communities.
In Phase 1 and 2 was an initial response to the pandemic and ran throughout 2022. We invested just short of £300,000 to support 62 projects across Greater Manchester in this phase.
The third phase (2021) saw nearly £170,000 worth of additional funds reach 80% of Greater Manchester boroughs, engaging with new and diverse audiences.
Click here to see what projects were funded for each borough
To read more about the different projects that were funded please download our Phase 3 Report located on the right-hand side of this page.
Further details please contact
- Imogen Halls
Project Support Lead - [email protected]
- 07765407978
Together Fund Phase 3 Report
Phase 4
Purpose
The Together Fund has enabled community groups to continue to exist and engage with their communities, supporting people to be active:
- Phase 1&2 (2020) – 62 projects, £280k investment
- Phase 3 (2021) – 20 projects, £155k investment
- Phase 4 (2022) – 44 projects , £350k investment
Additional £75k for final phase, this will include more funds for projects and some funding to work on resilience support for projects we have funded.
The grant aimed to increase physical activity, promote inclusion, and diversify local provision. The TF fostered new connections, emphasised local knowledge, and empowered communities. It also facilitated training for smaller organisations and supported community cohesion.
Facilitating a panel of local champions in decision making enables the fund to connect to priority audiences effectively and advocated their needs in the grant process. The panel enable a frequent, in depth, and useful communication network with community groups which increased the richness of applications leading to more awards being granted. The approach demonstrated the importance of local engagement and addressing wider outcomes of physical activity.
Learning
- Building new relationships with clarity of purpose in new spaces seems a useful technique to increase influence and connection.
- Authenticity and integrity appear to be critical in developing effective trust across networks.
- Understanding of landscape and its audiences enables insight into how to develop a meaningful common purpose.
- Developing a shared narrative has enabled some work areas to develop common purpose across sectors and begin to transform processes.
"This approach is community-led which has distributed ownership to the recipients and organisation, enabling the community to have a voice and feel empowered."
"This process allows the service user and service provider to experience the process of decision making and inform it."
Case Studies
Below are just a small selection of some of the successful projects which we have funded with Together Fund investment from Sport England.
Our GM Moving Equalities panel
Ahead of phase 3 of investment, GM Moving (then GreaterSport) established a GM Moving Equalities panel to specify the need and the process within Greater Manchester for the phase, followed by decision making for the grants which went to community groups and organisations.
This was a fantastic opportunity to collectively ensure we successfully distributed the fund, tested new approaches, and learned from the start to inform future phases. We recognised that the trusted relationships and networks of the panel members and their ability to connect to the priority audiences.
Learn more about this approach here.
Latest News
All News
GM Moving are excited to launch the Tackling Inequalities network
The network will offer renewed support for organisations providing community sport, physical activity and movement opportunities across Greater Manchester.
Pakeeza Women’s Group creating community through movement in Rochdale
GreaterSport visited the Pakeeza Women’s Group in Rochdale to see how they are making a difference in their community through physical activity and movement.
Fit4Life making a difference in Bolton
The Fit4Life health and wellbeing project in Halliwell, Bolton is attended by over 300 women every week, most of whom had previously never exercised.
For information on GM Moving's policy regarding data protection and use of personal data please click here.