The Sported Awards - held in London last night [Wednesday 11 June] - highlighted the vital role that local groups hold in transforming lives and strengthening communities.
Among the winners were Shanklin Football Club and Shanklin Voluntary Youth & Community Centre, who went home with the Outstanding Collaboration & Partnerships Award.
The club was established in 1888 and comprises Youth, Women’s and Men’s Football Teams, as well as being home to the Island’s ‘Uniformed Services Side’, IW Women’s Team, Darts Teams and various other activities involving the local community.
Collaborative fundraising efforts and donations of work-based skills have enabled the Club to invest £50,000 into new changing rooms, £20,000 into a new Clubhouse, reinstate floodlights, upgrade storage facilities, secure new equipment for the youth sides, and launch a new ‘Out of the Blue’ charity for members of the ‘Blue Light’ professions.
Pete Wilson, Shanklin Football Club, said: “We have a collaboration between our youth football teams and youth club. It’s a very community led team and club, and we’re trying to bring it all together.
“The biggest challenge is volunteers, getting people to volunteer and give up their time. We’re very lucky that on the Isle of Wight and at Shanklin that we’ve got enough volunteers, but we are always crying out for more.
“Sported have been amazing, they’ve helped fund through Barclays the refurbishment of our changing rooms at the football club which has enabled us to introduce more youth teams to give more kids the opportunity to play sport.”
Sported’s Regional Manager for South East England, Gil Robertson, said: “To have a club from the South East and Isle of Wight celebrated for the great work they do is encouraging for the whole area.
“Sported’s nation-wide network of sports groups and clubs impact communities and lives across the UK, so to have Shanklin Voluntary Youth & Community Centre and Shanklin Football Club recognised for what they do is inspiring for organisations across the region. They’re so deserving of the award and I’m incredibly pleased for them.”
The club beat nominees from across the nation-wide network of 5,000 Sported groups and clubs to take home their awards at the ceremony hosted by TV presenter and Sported trustee Jill Douglas.
The ceremony was hosted at the headquarters of Barclays Bank in London’s Canary Wharf, celebrating the partnership between Barclays and Sported that delivers the Barclays Community Sport Fund.
Sported is a leading UK sports charity with a network of 5,000 groups and clubs delivering sport and physical activity within their communities.
The chief executive of Sported, Sarah Kaye, whose charity supports and funds over 5000 groups nationally, called for greater support of grassroots sport, insisting the list of winners are just the tip of the iceberg in underlining the immense contribution of the sector.
“Clubs up and down the country are producing astonishing impacts on their local communities and the Sported Awards throws a spotlight on how they make a difference to so many with their work,” she said.
“However, we know that the vast majority of this is done by volunteers and that not enough funding is being made available to support them in what they do, let alone help them to invest further into the lives of people in their villages, towns and cities.
“Without proper funding these community lynchpins are at risk. However there is an immense opportunity for government and private sector partners to invest into what they accomplish and unleash the power of these local heroes to achieve even more.”
These local organisations receive support and guidance from Sported, as well as access to grants, funding information and Volunteer Consultants, helping them to further benefit lives within their communities.
To register to give your time and knowledge to help local heroes impact their community, visit the volunteering section of the Sported website: https://sported.org.uk/volunteers.
More information about Sported, it’s network, and the support the organisation provides to grassroots sports groups is available on its website at www.sported.org.uk.