Sporting Challenge

Sporting Challenge celebrates after receiving £10,000 from the National Lottery to help local adults with learning with disabilities in West Lancashire.

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see [these sessions expanded to seven a week.

Sporting Challenge is a family led charity started in 2008 operating in West Lancashire supporting people with learning disabilities, where all members of the Board of Trustees are parents and carers themselves.

The charity aims to provide sporting activities to encourage people with learning disabilities to keep fit and healthy. We run activities that our members feel are most beneficial to them in improving their health, fitness, well being and enjoyment of physical activity and those which they are most likely to continue with. These activities include: Aerobics, Bowling, Boccia, Kurling, Zumba/Dance, Swimming and other Fitness Activities.

They support around adults with learning disabilities in the West Lancashire area to access a variety of activities by providing transport to and from their homes and the appropriate sessional workers to support them whilst carrying out the activities.

Edward McCarthy Activities Organiser says: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. This will help fund many of our popular sessions in the year ahead.”

Visit: www.sporting-challenge.org.uk and https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/

Notes to Editors:

About The National Lottery Community Fund:

We are the largest community funder in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.

We are passionate about funding great ideas that matter to communities and make a difference to people’s lives. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.

Sporting Challenge have been awarded £1000 from the John Moores Foundation.

A huge thank-you on behalf of the charity. The £1000 will be used to fund some more of our activities.

For more information visit: http://www.jmf.org.uk/

March 2020.

A huge thank-you to the Bickerstock Music Festival Committee for a donation to Sporting Challenge for £400. This will be used to help funder future sessions.

For more information visit- https://bickerstock.org/

An organisation that promotes healthy lifestyles has been awarded a grant by Community Link Foundation to support a series of sporting activities for people with learning difficulties.

Sporting Challenge, based in West Lancashire, was set up in 2008 by a group of parents of adults with additional needs and its aims is to give people the opportunity to participate in different activities and encourage them to improve their health and well-being. They now support 55 people in the West Lancashire area.
They applied to Community Link Foundation for funding to put on activities to improve health, fitness, well being and enjoyment of physical activity including aerobics, bowling, boccia, kurling, zumba/dance and swimming.

Many of the group members live in rural areas across West Lancashire where public transport is poor or none existent, so Sporting Challenge also provides transport to and from the activities.

Sporting Challenge Activities Organiser Edward McCarthy: “I am delighted with the support we have received from the Community Link Foundation. On behalf of Sporting Challenge I would like to thank them for their support – it will make a huge difference. Attendance at the activities will improve their quality of life by enabling them to try something different, learn new skills and have the opportunity to socialise.”

“Some people with learning disabilities do not need physical support, but they may lack the skills to organise their own activities and maintain a circle of friends. We feel that that by providing these activities for people with learning disabilities we have really made a difference to their quality of life.”

Enda Rylands, Chairman of Community Link Foundation, said: “We are delighted to be able to award Sporting Challenge a grant of £500 to enable them to continue the wonderful work that they are doing. We have supported them in the past and know what great work they do.”

For more information about Sporting Challenge, go to www.sporting-challenge.org.uk or email edwardatEMSS@gmail.com.
For more information about Community Link Foundation, go to www.clfoundation.co.uk.

Sporting Challenge have been awarded £500 from Community Link to help fund sessions.

Community Link Foundation is a local charity with a difference; they assist anyone in Southport and surrounding areas who need financial support in the form of a variety of ways. They have a passion for supporting the people and organisations within our community and invest in the people who live in it so that we can be proud of where we live. Whether you are a parent with a child requiring assistance as part of an on-going illness or disease, a sports team in need of new equipment to benefit local young people or a community group that needs financial support for supplies or materials, Community Link Foundation can help those who need it most. The Community Link Foundation is the charity for the people of Southport, Formby, Ormskirk, Ainsdale, Burscough, Hesketh Bank, Rufford and Banks and the communities within these catchment boundaries.

Visit http://www.clfoundation.co.uk/