Sport England announce community emergency fund

Organisations that deliver or enable sport or physical activity in Rossendale can apply to a new fund set up by Sport England in response to the coronavirus emergency.

The £20m Community Emergency Fund is open for bids from local sports, voluntary and community organisations including small charitable trusts for grants between £300 and £10,000.

The fund has been developed to help organisations meet their costs while they are closed for example: to help a local sports club pay for their rent, utility bills, insurance, equipment hire, core staffing costs and loss of income.

Councillor Alyson Barnes, Leader of the Council, said:

Times are extremely tough for everyone at the moment including our superb sports clubs and community organisations that promote health and wellbeing.

I am pleased that Sport England have put together this fund as it’s important that our clubs and groups are able to keep going during this difficult time. When we get through this, and we will get through this, it’s important they are able to get back operating fully again as they provide enormous benefits for the borough.

I urge clubs and organisations to look at the information and apply for a grant to help ease the pressure during this challenging period.

Chief Executive of Sport England, Tim Hollingsworth, said:

We want the sector not just to come through the crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future and this package will ease the pressure on a huge number of organisations who are central to that.

Pennine Lancashire local authorities including Rossendale are working with Sport England to promote increased levels of activity to improve health and wellbeing.

Pennine Lancashire is one of twelve areas in the country to be selected by Sport England to ‘test and learn’ new ways of improving physical activity levels – the pilot in Pennine Lancashire is called ‘Together an Active Future’.  Tim Hollingsworth recently visited Pennine Lancashire and met with leads of Local Authorities and Leisure Trusts to hear what challenges have been encountered and how progress is being made.

The Community Emergency Fund is part of a larger £195 million package and is in addition to their recent decision to offer flexibility to those who currently receive funding – including the ability to change timings, key performance indicators, targets and conditions.

Apply for the funding now.