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By Guest | 06 September 2022 | TAGS: funding, Children and young people, community groups

Sported, a charity supporting grassroots sports groups, has partnered with Barclays to deliver a new community fund, providing grants to groups making football more accessible at the grassroots level.  This is perfectly timed, after the success of the Women’s EURO when groups are being overwhelmed with girls wanting to play and need help to accommodate them.

Grants of £500 are available for groups wishing to start offering football, those keen to expand their existing provision to new audiences or those already delivering football to under-represented young people. Alongside the grants, the programme will be offering training and support resources to help reduce inequalities in the participation of football.  The programme’s engagement will focus on girls and young people from lower socio-economic and under-represented groups: including racially diverse communities, young people with disabilities, and young people from the LGBTQ+ community. 

Applications are welcome from all types of organisations including football clubs, community groups, youth groups and charities.   To be eligible, groups must meet the following criteria: 

  • You are a not-for-profit organisation and have a governing document e.g. Constitution or Articles of Association in place. Unfortunately, we cannot fund companies limited by shares. 
  • You have a bank account in the name of your organisation. We cannot fund individual personal accounts. 
  • You have an up-to-date safeguarding policy in place. 
  • You are delivering football activities to young people (aged up to 24 years) OR you are wanting to start .
  • You already include an offering for girls or you are wanting to start .
  • You have the aspiration and capacity to grow your membership of young people from under-represented groups. This includes girls, young people with disabilities, from racially diverse communities and from the LGBTQ+ community. 
  • You are keen to access training to learn about how to engage with new under-represented audiences .

To find out more and complete the application form visit Barclays Community Football Fund/Sported https://sported.org.uk/barclays-community-football-fund-2/

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