The Big Give Challenge

As part of the Big Give Challenge, the Garfield Weston Foundation will match all individual donations of £5 or more given to Sports Leaders UK from 10am on Monday 6 December. The Garfield Weston Foundation is a generous supporter of Sports Leaders UK’s Outreach work, helping to fund sports leadership opportunities in areas of greatest need. There is limited funding available for the Big Give Challenge, so if you’re keen to donate, please do so as close as possible to 10am on Monday 6 December. While funding may be available on Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 December, there is no guarantee that there will be anything left in the pot. For your donation to be matched, you must give £5 or more to Sports Leaders UK through the Big Give website, visit http://bit.ly/a4qVT5 and click Donate Online Now. Sports Leaders UK changes lives. By training as Sports Leaders, some of the most disenfranchised young people and adults learn new skills, gain confidence and find a positive new life. Sports Leaders UK relies on donations to carry out its important work in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. In these places, low educational attainment, poor housing and high unemployment makes life far more difficult. These factors are often made worse by inadequate transport systems, poor recreational facilities, and almost inevitably result in many of the current social problems - vandalism, street crime and a spiral that individuals start and whole communities get caught up in. A modest donation to Sports Leaders UK brings rich returns: • £52.50 will pay for two people to train to become Community Sports Leaders. • £500 will establish a course for a whole group of young people. • £2,000 will train a team of 20 tutors or more - that could result in 20 more courses a year, and could mean 400 more Sports Leaders a year, every year. • £5,000 will enable Sports Leaders UK to establish a joint community project, with a partner organisation, in an area with high levels of unemployment and deprivation. Commercial Development Director at Sports Leaders UK, Midge Blake said: “Sports Leaders UK makes a real contribution to community improvement. By learning how to communicate effectively and take a lead, Sports Leaders mark themselves out as people of stature. They become leaders for good, not followers of the bad. Young people form teams not gangs. Using planning and organising skills, they become people who can build not destroy their communities.” Sports Leader Jay Holloway, who went from an ASBO to gaining an award for exceptional services to the community said: “Sports Leaders UK qualifications have turned my life around; I finally feel good about myself and what I am doing in life. I just hope that more young people get the opportunities that I had. The Sports Leaders UK courses go a long way in diverting people from a life of crime.” Sports Leaders UK has already received a guaranteed pledge of £50,000 from the Future Jobs Fund. This money will enable Sports Leaders UK to offer six unemployed young people a year’s training and work experience placement at a Sports Leaders UK Outreach Centre. During the year, the young people will train to become Sports Leaders and will gain skills in communication, organisation and leadership. At the end of the year, they will be trained as Sports Leaders UK Tutors – giving them skills for life and further opportunities to gain employment. The six young people will be based at the Sports Leaders UK Outreach Centres located in the following areas: Bristol, Southwark, Nottingham, Manchester, Milton Keynes and Hastings. Note to editors: Sports Leaders UK is a charity delivering sports leadership awards and qualifications to more than 200,000 people a year, through 4,000 schools, colleges, local authorities, prisons and young offender units. It acts as an Awarding Body providing nationally recognised qualifications, and has a Foundation to deliver free or subsidised courses in areas of greatest need. Sports Leaders UK Anne Compton, Public Relations T: 01908 689212 E: media@sportsleaders.org