WSA members Sported announced as one of three beneficiary charities for Sunday Times Christmas Charity Appeal

Sported was founded in 2008 by Sir Keith Mills, chief executive of the London 2012 Olympics bid, as a legacy project: a charity to get young people not only playing sport, but using it to overcome personal hurdles and fulfil their potential.

While all the groups supported by Sported have passion — 53% are run by volunteers — they need extra help, often with governance, insurance, certification, legal complications, health and safety, safeguarding, succession planning, training and using social media. Sported advises on all of these, via mentors who spend as long as six months working with a group, free of charge. It also brings like-minded groups together to share ideas and resources. As lockdown hit, it helped them to move online.

It is about making organisations viable and sustainable, said Nicola Walker, Sported’s chief executive:

“Then we let them do what they do best. Because they know who the kids are. They know what the social issues are in the area and they are best placed to resolve them.”

Sported now supports an estimated 480,000 young people in 96 different sports. Angling, kabadi, roller-derby, parkour, boccia, wheelchair rugby, dance and yoga are all in the mix.

Sported says 24% of its members have an annual income of less than £5,000. A quarter of Sported’s groups say they may not be around in six months’ time.

Over the weekend Sported was announced  as one of three beneficiary charities for this year’s Times and Sunday Times Christmas Charity Appeal.  Their selection, alongside FareShare and the Tusk Trust, will enable a dozen Sported stories to be published starting with this weekend’s launch piece with one of their ambassadors, Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur and England). As WSA members, we wanted to share this appeal with the wider sector. Sunday’s article and the video created can be seen via this Eric Dier backs Christmas appeal for Sported charity to help grassroots clubs link.

If you’d like to know more about WSA members Sported, please follow the link here. The Sported charity appeal hashtag is #TimesChristmasAppeal