RYA awarded further £150,000 of Tackling Inequalities Funding

Claudia and daughter (Sailability@Whitefriars) plus OnBoard session at Tollgate Primary School, London © RYA

The RYA has been awarded a further £150,000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England's Tackling Inequalities Fund which aims to help reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 and the widening of the inequalities in sport and physical activity.

Non-profit organisations and RYA OnBoard and Sailability venues in England are once again invited to apply for grants of up to £10,000 that will be used for projects which engage with:

• Lower socio-economic groups
• Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities
• Disabled People
• People with long term health conditions

"In the last round we awarded 19 venues and we're hugely grateful to Sport England for making this funding available to sailing projects once again. It's been another very tough six months for grassroots sport but we're now beginning to see the impact that this funding can have" said Rob Clark, RYA Director of Sport Development.

Plymouth Youth Sailing Club were awarded £10,000 for their work helping disadvantaged people in their local area including refugees and asylum seekers. Adrian Kemp said the funding came at a 'pivotal' time for the club.

"It has enabled us to recruit an additional member of staff to support our volunteers in the delivery of a dedicated programme for both the BAME community and young people who have suffered from isolation during the pandemic. Without this additional outreach funding, it would have been impossible to have established this programme straight out of lockdown".

Sailability@Whitefriars have used their funding to run winter training for volunteers and carers, enabling them to restart activity by remotely assisting and shadowing sailors. New members Claudia and her daughter Luciana are both benefitting from this.

"Because of the restrictions we have addressed due to COVID, having someone assisting Luciana and myself on the water has meant I get to spend quality time with my daughter, and she gets to experience a beautiful activity that calms and soothes her" explains Claudia.

The deadline for venues to submit completed application forms with supporting project plans is 26 May 2021.

Rob concludes: "We know there are more organisations who will want to use this opportunity to deliver fantastic projects to these communities. Within our audiences, there'll be groups who've found it harder to return to activity so we're particularly interested in projects which can address this, for example people who require greater levels of physical support to be active or those who have been subject to long term considerable levels of COVID-19 restrictions".

More information about the funding, criteria, and application forms can be found on the RYA website here.

Find more information about Sport England Tackling Inequalities Funding.

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