Active Essex ‘Sportivate’ funding window closes soon

A £56 million initiative providing children and young adults with access to six-to-eight weeks of free or subsidised coaching, Active Essex’s ‘Sportivate’ programme, is providing funding for many clubs, educational establishments and not-for-profit organisations who apply before Friday January 16.

Essex groups who encourage sporting activity in 11 to 25-year-olds can put themselves forward to benefit from a London 2012 legacy project.

It gives more young people the chance to discover a sport that they love. Participants can work towards an event or personal challenge.

When the free or low-cost coaching has finished, they’ll be supported to continue. This window is for activities running between April and September 2015.

Initially a four-year programme launched in June 2011, the success of Sportivate meant it has since benefitted from additional funding to allow it to run until March 2017.

From September 2013, Sportivate extended its age group so 11 to 13-year-olds can also be included.

The programme is inclusive and targets a variety of young people, including those who have a disability and people from black and minority ethnic groups.

Sportivate is delivered nationally by Sport England and in, Outer Essex, by Active Essex.

Submissions are currently being sought and new guidance notes and an application form are available online.

These provide much greater depth of detail on the programme. The deadline for applications to be received by Active Essex is January 16.

Previous applicants should note that the participant criteria have changed and Sport England will now be using Sportivate to target ‘inactive’ rather than ‘semi-sporty’ individuals, particularly those of 17 to 25 years of age.

Inactive individuals are identified as those who do not take part in sport or physical activity every week.

The overall key criteria to apply are:

• participants must be 11 to 25 years old;

• participants between 11 to 16 will only be considered where there is a clear opportunity and a strong connection to continued community-based activity (i.e. outside of school);

• participants should currently have a low engagement with sport or physical activity (i.e. less than four times per month).

Further information, plus an application form and guidance notes, can be found at www.essexfa.com, as well as a link to The FA’s ‘Grant Finder’ for many other sources of funding.