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Cash4Clubs Campaign Raises £4.8M for UK Grassroots Sports
By Shane Addinall Mar 07, 2021 IndustryGrassroots sports has been at the centre of nurturing and supporting at-risk youth for years but remains understaffed and underfunded. The Flutter Group aims to address this with a multi-million Pound donation to the Clubs in Crisis initiative.The UK-based charity Made by Sport understands the pressures and challenges that the youth of today face – and they are determined to make a difference.
The lack of options and role models at home has resulted in over 11% of UK youth not being employed or being able to obtain training that will provide a stable income. This lack of income and frustration has seen knife crime by teenagers increase by 70% over the past few years and seen a 19% increase in mental health disorders.
While these statistics are prevalent among the 16-24 age bracket they are found to be twice as likely if the young person is from an ethnic minority background, leading to 30% of the UK’s young people being classed as living in poverty.
A Ray of Hope
Made by Sport has done the numbers and found that on a social, mental, developmental and financial basis involving the youth in sports gives them a marked advantage in these difficult circumstances.
They list the following benefits of their initiatives:
- Every £1 spent on addressing truancy and crime prevention in youth shows a £4.34 ROI.
- Youth participating in sports show 25%-52% reductions in anxiety and depression.
- Resilience to daily challenges increases 6 times once active in sports.
- Communication skills have been shown to increase by up to 5 times.
However, despite the tangible real-world benefits of these programs youth and grassroots sports organisation are chronically underfunded and have been particularly hard hit during the pandemic.
Online Gambling Joins the Fight
The Cash4Clubs program was initiated by Flutter Entertainment to help alleviate the needs of more than 2600 UK sporting organisations who have found themselves without the means to continue caring for the youth in their areas.
The organisation rolled out the “Clubs in Crisis” fund in conjunction with Made by Sport which offers ailing sports clubs £2021 in unrestricted support. To make this dream a reality Flutter funded the program with a very generous donation of £4.79 million.
Peter Jackson, Group CEO of Flutter Entertainment, said:
“Lack of funding is not a new issue for community clubs - which is why we have donated the full £4.79m benefit to Made by Sport to help support the grassroots clubs that make an impact in their communities.”
Managing the dissemination of these funds across a large number of qualifying organisations will be quite a challenge. To that the correct programs receive funding in a timely manner Made by Sport and Cash4Clubs will be partnering with the UK Community Foundations.
Rosemary Macdonald, CEO of UK Community Foundations, said:
“We are delighted to be working with Made by Sport to distribute much-needed funds to community sports groups and clubs across the country. Our network of 46 community foundations enables us to reach every area of the UK, supporting organisations that make a real difference in their local area.”
The goal of the project is to begin distributing funds to qualifying sports organisations at the end of March 2021 which aligns with the expected opening up of grassroots sports across the UK.
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