Sport England Aims Second £10m Fund At Women

In the second of its themed investments to boost participation levels in the run-up to 2012, Sport England has announced a new £10m National Lottery funding pot to encourage ‘Active Women’ – a major drive to get more women from disadvantaged communities, and women caring for children, playing sport.

The new funding allocation, supported by the government and the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF), is the second of Sport England’s competitive themed rounds aimed at addressing some of the biggest challenges to grassroots participation.

The first round was unveiled in March this year and provided a £10m investment fund to create sporting opportunities for people in rural areas.

The rounds are aimed at helping to achieve the organisation’s 2012 Olympic legacy goal of getting 1 million more people playing regular sport.

According to statistics provided by Sport England, at present one in eight women regularly play sport in England. Whilst this has increased significantly since 2005/06, women’s participation still trails behind that of their male counterparts with one in five men active.

The statistics provided also show that women from disadvantaged communities play even less sport, with just one in 10 taking part regularly.

Sport England is calling on a wide range of community groups and sectors to make applications for funding, including those who have not previously considered applying.

‘Disadvantaged communities’ are defined within the scheme using the Communities and Local Government classification, as the 20% most deprived ‘lower super output areas’ in the country.

The launch of ‘Active Women’ coincides with the announcement that Sport England is investing £1.4m of government funding in the WSFF to help in its work with governing bodies to meet the individual needs of women and consequently increase participation.