New youth sports sessions for Battersea estates
Young people from the Winstanley and York Road estates in Battersea will be offered a wide selection of sport and fitness training thanks to a £150,000 grant from Sport England.
The sessions, which focus on people aged 14 to 25, will get going early this year and will include female only activities, boot camp classes, basketball, football, dance, athletics and youth take over nights at local leisure centres.
Later on in the three-year programme there will also be sport themed community events and training courses leading to valuable coaching qualifications.
The initiative aims is to give local young people the chance to try a range of new sports, make new friends, get fit, have fun and learn new skills in the process.
The programme was designed by young people living on the estates who took part in surveys and workshops earlier this year.
The bid for Sport England funding was submitted by Enable Leisure & Culture which runs sports services on behalf of Wandsworth Council.
The total cost of the programme is expected to be around £225,000, with the remainder coming from the council and local partners including Carney’s Community and Places for People Leisure.
Wandsworth Council’s sport and leisure spokesman Jonathan Cook said:
“This is fantastic news and I want to thank Sports England for their support. It means the young people living on these two Battersea estates will have access to a superb range of high quality sports activities for the next three years.
“This is part of our commitment to regenerating the Winstanley and York Road neighbourhood and to providing new opportunities for the communities who live here.”
Enable Leisure and Culture managing director Paul McCue said the project was exactly how Enable’s leisure and sport team like to work.
He said:
“This ground-up, research-led community development work followed some in depth research with local young people and stakeholders which gave a very clear message of what was needed to get more young people active.”
Among the ideas about how the existing facilities could be improved are:
- Better branding of what activities are for young people (14-25)
- Sessions to be delivered in the right style, at the right time, in the right place, for the right price
- Coordinate existing sessions better
An ‘expert alliance’ of stakeholders including local facilities, youth clubs and the Enable sports team will oversee the delivery of the programme.
For further information please call 020 8871 8357 or email activelifestyles@enablelc.org.