NAME OF ORGANISATION: South Bristol Sports Centre
LOCATION: Bristol
YEAR FOUNDED: 2006
ABOUT: South Bristol Sports Centre is a Bristol-based charity who work with children, young people and the general public to educate and to develop their physical and mental capacities though sport.
INVESTMENT PURPOSE: To enable South Bristol Sports Centre to build their outdoor 5-a-side football pitches in order to provide easy access to community, support and team sports for disabled young people in Bristol.
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £250,000
DATE OF INVESTMENT: April 2016
SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: South West SITR Fund
IMPACT: Poverty & Disadvantage; Health, Wellbeing & Social Care
ABOUT: South Bristol Sports Centre is a Bristol-based charity which runs Imperial Sports Ground. They focus on creating the opportunity for everyone to participate in sport- for them this means working with children, young people and the general public to educate and to develop their physical and mental capacities though sport.
South Bristol Sports Centre aims to provide inclusive, affordable and easy-to-access physical activity to children who are disabled and living in the most deprived neighbourhoods of Bristol. They offer sports facilities and private coaching including a range of other services such as 16 football and rugby pitches, function rooms, beginner dance classes, frame football (for disabled players) and Project Inc football (a free football programme for adults and young people with disabilities).
PURPOSE OF INVESTMENT: The main purpose of the investment was to enable South Bristol Sports Centre to build their outdoor 5-a-side football pitches. In Bristol 84% of parents said that there is a lack of leisure facilities for their disabled children and statistics show that during term-time 30% of disabled children are ‘less active’ compared to 21% of non-disabled children. This is where the necessity of the investment from the Resonance Bristol SITR Fund arises from. Building the 5-a-side football pitches enables South Bristol Sports Centre to host frame football, a football team for disabled players providing access not only to physical activity specifically tailored to the needs of the players, but to a sense of community too. This community is vital due to 72% of disabled children being twice as likely to be lonely compared to 36% of non-disabled children. Providing easy access to community, support and team sports for disabled young people in Bristol helps to build confidence, develop skills and increase physical activity.
James Edwards, Football Development Officer at SBSC: “This is a really exciting time for South Bristol Sports Centre. This investment will provide us with the opportunity and the platform to not only increase the provision for young people in the community, but more importantly to work more closely with them and build strong relationships to help them develop their skills, confidence and aspirations.”
Billy Downes, 23: “South Bristol Sports Centre has helped me use football to get away from my troubled background and get back in a classroom – a place I hated. I’ve now completed a number of FA coaching qualifications and have become a professional coach. I pride myself in being able to inspire children and build relationships to help them develop – not only in sport, but as people – and I specialise in working with the ‘hard to reach children’, as I have been there and can relate. I’m now also supporting SBSC’s new “FutureFIVES” programme, a Youth Council giving young people a voice to design and deliver their own sessions on brand new football pitches. Then we can find out what they are really interested in and support their development through that – which is what got me to where I am today.”
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