We are excited to announce that Challengers has been awarded the maximum grant of £15,000 from Sport England’s Movement Fund, made possible by the National Lottery.
This grant will enable us to run sports and movement sessions for disabled young people who attend our Youth schemes throughout 2025.
Focused on engaging marginalised groups and promoting inclusive activities, the initiative will provide more than 3,000 hours of sports and movement-based fun across the year, reaching over 100 disabled young people who attend Challengers.
Each Youth scheme will host one sports activity per term, as well as a special summer Sports Day. We hope that by encouraging our young people to get active at Challengers and grow their confidence, we can help to close the sports participation gap between disabled and non-disabled children, which widens as they get older.
Maddie Church, who is responsible for Child Engagement work at Challengers said: “When I visit our Youth schemes and ask the young people what their favourite activities are, sports and movement-based activities are always popular. Our young people love football, swimming and trampolining in particular, so any opportunity to increase participation to these activities will be hugely beneficial.”
Challengers’ Trust Fundraiser Cat Salt, who made the successful bid for the funding, added: “This grant will make a significant difference in supporting disabled young people to engage with sports, which is positive in so many ways. Many of the young people we support face barriers to participation in traditional sports, so having dedicated, inclusive sessions tailored to their needs is so important for their wellbeing and confidence. We’re thrilled to see the impact this will have over the coming year.”
We will be sharing updates and photos from the sessions throughout the year on social media, so make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.