Greenhouse Sports secures Sport England funding
Greenhouse Sports today announces new additional support from Sport England’s Sport for Development fund. Nearly £1 million of National Lottery funding has been granted to the charity specifically to develop extracurricular activity on Greenhouse Sports’ mainstream schools programmes for young people aged 14 years and above.
The project follows on from a successful six-week pilot on delivering extracurricular activity, undertaken early last year. It will use sport as part of social inclusion and will build on Greenhouse Sports’ schools-based activity in order to deliver more outstanding sports programmes to more young people to help them to reach their full potential.
Greenhouse Sports has worked with more than 35,000 young people since inception in 2002 and currently operates 50 sports programmes in schools across London (thirty-six in mainstream secondary schools and ten in those for young people with Special Educational Needs); it also runs four community clubs.
Our evaluation of the 2013-14 year shows that, on average, Greenhouse Sports participants attended four more days of school per year than their non-Greenhouse Sports classmates. Independent school data revealed that, during the same period, the behaviour of Greenhouse Sports participants improved by 7% more than their non-Greenhouse Sports classmates.
Greenhouse Sports’ CEO and founder, Michael de Giorgio, said: “I am thrilled that we can count Sport England as one of our key supporters. This award is an important new development in our work with Sport England to encourage participation in sport and will certainly help us to achieve even more with the young people we work with.”
Impressed by the measurable and tangible outcomes of Greenhouse Sports’ work to develop its young people’s social, thinking, emotional and physical skills, Sport England gave this award endorsing Greenhouse Sports’ work to date. Greenhouse Sports will work closely with Sport England to help more people create a sporting habit for life.
Mike Diaper, Sport England’s Director of Community Sport, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Greenhouse Sports in their mission to develop social, thinking, emotional and physical skills within young people, while getting them into sport, in London’s most disadvantaged communities.”
“The funding will help support young people at key transitions in their lives through high-quality, intensive sport programmes delivered by inspirational coaches. This award is an acknowledgement of the high-quality work that Greenhouse Sports delivers and their commitment to advising and sharing best practice with their peers.”