Drop in session session
On Wednesday 21st October, we hosted a Virtual Learning & Networking Session on the Tackling Inequalities Fund.
Click below to watch the full event:
Sport Birmingham Staff:
- Helen Corrigan- Senior Partnerships Manager (Community)
- Alice Trevallion - Community Projects Manager
- Sam Payne - Children and Young People Officer
- Adam Warden - Workforce Development Manager
- Nicola English – Project Officer
Notes from the session
Introduction to Tackling Inequalities Fund:
- Part of Sport England's emergency response to support the Sport & Physical sector through COVID
- Fund aimed at 'here and now' and to be used over the next 6 months.
- There is a number of groups disproportionally affected by COVID, Sport England have identified 4 priority audiences: low socio-economic groups, individuals with disabilities & Long Term Health Conditions and Minority Ethnic communities.
- Phase 1 ran as a closed application process & more targeted approach based on data where there was the highest need. 34 organisations have been funded, average grant of over £3000
- Many of phase 1 projects used to re-engage audiences
Phase 2 Fund (Open Now)
- £110,000 for phase 2 – end of January to submit all applications to Sport England
- Organisations have a 6 month period to deliver and spend funding from when funding is received.
- Round 1 of funding ring-fenced for people with disabilities and LTHC (Open now, closing date 6th November)
- Round 2 of funding open to all priority audiences, still including disability and LTHC. No specific guidelines on which LTHC we will fund, all will be considered.
- If you have been funded for phase 1 you are not eligible to apply for phase 2.
Application Process
- Guidance and application form and can be found in 2 places on the website:
- Application needs to be completed on Survey Monkey. Questions can be found in a PDF on website. Recommend that you type answers out in a word document beforehand, as you are not able to 'save' and return to a Survey Monkey link.
- Please stick to word limits and complete all questions.
- Bullet points can be used in application.
- Staffing, facility hire, rent, PPE, digital solutions, training and insurance can all be covered as part of the funding.
- Would be looking for the organisations to be sustainable
- Important that you can really demonstrate how your organisation has been impacted and how the project will provide a solution to help overcome this.
- Needs to be a clear link to physical activity.
- There have been questions around whether gardening/healthy eating & cooking can be funded. They can be one element of the project, but it has to have a Physical Activity lead.
Training Needs
- Sport Birmingham have identified a range of training courses as critical to the COVID response and retuning to play needs, many of which are self-directed online learning. Examples of these can be accessed on the guidance document.
- Also offering organisational mentoring to support with sustainability and longevity of volunteers.
Grant Management Process
- Initially goes to Sport Birmingham's internal panel which will also include other external partners who work with individuals with a disability or LTHC will be part of the panel to support with the process and give another perspective.
- Application sent to Sport England's moderation panel who will then notify Sport Birmingham if and when it's approved.
- Service Level Agreement and financial forms sent out.
- There will be a monitoring and evaluation form that needs completing at the end of the programme. Important to notify Sport Birmingham if things change with your programme, so we can support you and your needs.
Further Information & Guidance
- For further information, please see FAQ document
- Any further enquiries to be sent to grants@sportbirmingham.org
*Click below to download the powerpoint from the session*
Tackling Inequalities Virtual Learning Session 21st OCt 2020 (Powerpoint, 2.3 Mb)
Sport's Key: How the funding has helped their organisation
Throughout the lockdown period we managed to keep regular engagement with our audience, especially with the young people who were now switched off from any form of sporting activity. For each of our core programmes, we have a WhatsApp group that enabled us to stay connected and up to date with how people are coping, what their needs were and to keep them informed on latest developments. A way of us keeping interactive was by running competitions, challenges and conducting informal consultations through open questions. We learnt that many of the young people who had part time jobs, were unfortunately no longer in work, or on furlough and not receiving a substantial living, so were now under financial strain, in addition which concerning for our audience as many come from marginalised backgrounds.
Whilst transitioning from lockdown into the recovery period, we knew that we had an audience ready and waiting to partake in activity, which is why we applied to receive an award from the Tackling Inequalities Fund (TIF). Our proposal of £2230 was to reactivate 3 of our core activities Netball, Football and Badminton. However, due to restrictions around indoor team sports, we were unable to deliver our netball programme, with the addition to limited venue access to carry out the activity at the start of the programme. Although a primary sport or activity was not initially proposed, subsequently we experienced a high demand for our badminton programme as it was oversubscribed, so we added an extra session during the week for those who were on the waiting list for our main session.
Encouragingly, within our recovery programmes, we have engaged with 15 new 14-19-year-old participants, who have taken part within our intergenerational football and badminton recovery programme, with most now regular attendees at our weekly sessions particularly within our football sessions. The new group of young people have integrated well within our activities and have formed friendships, while developing confidence from a social aspect, and within their ability to improve within the sport.
Since returning to activity, we have experienced a new level of camaraderie amongst the existing participants, who relished the opportunity to engage socially, whilst being given a platform to be physically active within a community type setting, under current restrictions.
One participant who we have identified (Akhieam) who is 19 years old, expressed that he was struggling with the lockdown period as he was out of work and had no transport, so felt bored and isolated. We received numerous enquiries from him to see when football would be back on, as he was not used to being inactive. We were overly concerned that young people's mental wellbeing was at risk, and that lockdown restrictions were increasing everyday societal issues that many were struggling to cope with.
The impact of the TIF has enabled the likes of Akhieam and many others, to re-engage back into part of his normal sport and physical activity routine and reunite with his friendship bubble that has formed within the programme.
If we were to apply for a similar fund now, our approach would be slightly different. We would be looking at ways we can do things differently, in the anticipation that further restrictions could be imposed at any time, limiting the option of delivering sport and physical activity. We would be looking at forms of delivery we could carry out virtually, whilst exploring training offers for young people at a time where the economy and job market is shrinking. We would work to ensure there are options and opportunities for young people, whilst aiming to build resilience, as through this unprecedented time, we simply cannot predict the height of further challenges ahead.
