Sport England Grant for Activeharlow
Community Sport and Physical Activity Network - activeharlow,
led by Harlow Council, has been successful in attracting £39,346 in
grant funding from Sport England. The funding will contribute
towards delivering an action plan with the aim of increasing
participation rates in sport and physical activity within Harlow.
The total value of the action plan is £246,622 with the remaining
funding coming from a range of sources including Sportessex, Big
Lottery Fund, Boshier Hinton Foundation, Awards For All, Essex
Community Foundation and BAA Stansted. Other key partners in the
delivery of the action plan include Mark Hall School Specialist
Sports College, West Essex Primary Care Trust, Harlow and District
Sports Trust.
Currently, 18.48% of Harlow residents over 16 years old
regularly participate in sport and physical activity which is below
the national average of 21%. The grant funding will enable
activeharlow to address this through partnership working with a
range sports clubs within the town, to increase sports
participation by targeting populations that currently have low
participation rates. Over the next year projects that include 'Get
Active Outdoors', 'Get Back Into . . .', 'Girls Into. . .', 'Get
Into Football', 'Bodycare', 'Community Health Coaches', 'After
School Multi-Skill Clubs', 'All Ability Sport and Leisure',
'Capacity Building' and ' Weight Management Courses', will aim to
target approximately 2000 Harlow residents.
The first project to launch will be 'Get Into Football' on
Monday 17th March at Sumners Xperience Centre and Wednesday 19th
March at Ladyshot Playing Field. This project will involve football
coaching for 7-12 year olds (Ladyshot from 5-7pm) and 13-18 year
olds (Sumners 6.30-8.30pm including the Monday Club youth club and
Ladyshot 7-9pm). Partners for this project also include Essex Youth
Services, Harlow Education Consortium and Essex Police.
Cllr Eleanor Macy Chair of Harlow Council's Environment and
Community Committee said: "Sports provision in Harlow continues to
go from strength to strength as another innovative project,
activeharlow, gets up and running. The activeharlow initiative will
not only provide opportunities for people to enhance their lives
through sports and physical activity, but will also encourage
people back into sport and also start children off on the path to a
more active life. This funding from Sport England shows that Harlow
is at the forefront of promoting healthy lifestyles and is
pioneering nationally recognised sporting initiatives."
Cllr Tony Hall, Vice Chair Harlow Council and activeharlow
member said: "This is excellent news for Harlow. The work of Harlow
Council and activeharlow is making a real difference to sport and
physical activity levels in Harlow. The grant funding means that a
wide range of projects can be delivered that will be the catalyst
to increase participation rates in sport and physical activity
across the town. Activeharlow was the first Community Sport and
Physical Activity Network to launch in Essex and continues to lead
the way being one of the first to attract this level of
investment".
Chris Perks, Regional Director Sport England East said: "We are
delighted to make this award to activeharlow. New programmes such
as "Get Into" and "Get Back Into", will attract new people to sport
from the local area. This is an excellent example of how Sport
England National Lottery funding can help local communities in
sustaining and increasing participation".
Greg Cooper, Community Sport Network Manager, for sportessex
said: "sportessex are thrilled that the hard work and commitment
shown by activeharlow partners has been recognised and more
positive opportunities to play sport will be realised through their
action plan".