The Football Foundation does not just fund facilities, kit and goalposts. Clubs, charities, schools and other organisations can also apply for funding towards community schemes that use participation in sport as a vehicle to address issues like obesity, mental health issues, crime and poor education.
The Football Foundation’s Community Strategy outlines seven objectives for community projects that the Foundation will fund. These are:-
• Preventing and reducing offending.
• Promoting respect amongst communities and bringing people together through football.
• Improving educational attainment and lifelong learning.
• Encouraging personal development from participation in football and sport through to volunteering, training and employment.
• Tackling the rise of obesity in children and adults.
• Improving the mental health and wellbeing of children and adults.
• Tackling regional health inequalities in life expectancy and chronic illness.
Applicants can therefore get funding from the Foundation for projects that demonstrate that they will deliver one or more of these objectives whilst increasing participation in playing, volunteering and coaching sport.
The Foundation particularly encourages applications which target activity in the most deprived areas of the country and focus on the groups most in need as identified within the detail of each objective.
Liverpool-based charity Team Oasis provided ad hoc football activity for a small group of youngsters in 2003, before they successfully applied for Foundation funding of £169,880.
Since receiving their grant their activity has taken off in style, as their chief Paul Nilson explains: “The Foundation has been a godsend to our little Charity. When we first made contact with the Foundation we had 15 local kids playing football with Team Oasis.
“Now after 18 months support we have around 300 players every week and it’s growing every day.”
Visit www.footballfoundation.org.uk for more information and also to apply online.
