Lloyds Tsb Unveils Next Phase Of Local Heroes
Lloyds TSB, the first Tier One partner to sign up to sponsor the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has unveiled the next phase of its ‘Local Heroes’ programme, announcing the bank’s commitment to 276 athletes and their families to support their journeys to the Games and beyond.
In a bid to ensure more British talent reaches the top of their sport, Lloyds TSB, in partnership for the third year with charity SportsAid, is providing the emerging athletes, and their families with an award of £1,000 – approximately 20% of their average annual sporting expenditure.
Analysis of existing SportsAid award recipients indicates that investing in sporting talent at this early stage will ultimately increase the stock of top British talent that could perform at the highest level.
Research conducted by SportsAid shows that 97% of SportsAid funded athletes aged 21 or under will rely primarily on parents or family for financial support in order to continue their progress as a performance athlete.
In addition, 93% of National Governing Bodies that work with SportsAid confirmed that they would not be able to offer additional financial support to their emerging athletes if help from the charity was not available.
Lloyds TSB Local Heroes will also be running workshops, to be hosted by Olympic silver medallist Leon Taylor, involving a series of motivational sessions led by sports psychology experts and other Olympic and Paralympic medallists.
The day-long workshops will provide Local Heroes and their families with the skills to cope with life as a high performance athlete by learning how to manage their sporting and educational commitments and maintain a ‘sense of self’ as they devote more time to their sporting career.
Parents of successful athletes, such as Rebecca Adlington’s mother Kay and Ellie Simmonds’ mother Val, will also be on hand to meet parents of Local Heroes to discuss their experiences and offer advice like how to help their child make the right higher education choice and sharing learning’s from other parents in a similar situation.
In addition to funding and advice, each athlete attending a Lloyds TSB Local Heroes workshop receives training from sports journalists and an insight into the commercial world of sport to help them tell their story more effectively, especially in their local community in order to help inspire other young people.
The London 2012 Tier 1 sponsor will position the Local Heroes as inspirational young sporting role models to school children participating in this year’s Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week (28th June to 2nd July) – an initiative designed to get more children doing more school sport ahead of London 2012.
Lloyds TSB works with SportsAid through the charity’s network of National Governing Bodies of sport to identify emerging talent across Britain and deliver the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes programme. Since it launched in 2008 the programme has supported 589 young British Olympic and Paralympic prospects.
