Sport England’s Sportivate initiative gears up to launch

25/03/2011

Says Sport England:
Sportivate will capture the excitement of London 2012 to provide attractive sporting opportunities for teenagers and young adults in a sport of their choice. Sportivate will run until March 2015.
With many young people dropping out of sport in their teens and early twenties, we need to motivate them to give a sport another go or to try something completely new.
Hundreds of thousands of youngsters will enjoy six weeks of coaching at a local venue – and they’ll get guidance on the places and people they can continue to play with when the six weeks are up.
Sportivate will be open to everyone aged between 14 and 25.

Nationally Sportivate will be launched on 14 June 2011 but submitting projects for the first rounds of funding is required NOW. Each County Sport Partnership is implementing Sportivate locally, but there is national coordination provided by NGBs and Sport England to ensure consistency for particiapnts (where possible).

Example of timeframes from 3CSPs:-

London Pro-Actives require expressions of interest by 25 March
Greater Sport (Greater Manchester) requires applications by 1st April for entry into their Pilot (phase 1) period of July-September. This is considered a pilot phase and you are encouraged to bid only if you have planned projects that meet the aims and objectives of Sportivate. For projects operating between October and March the deadline is Friday 22nd July.
Derbyshire Sport expects applications no later than 29 April

Example criteria from GreaterSport (Greater Manchester) for Activities in their Year One are as follows:-

Activities must take place between July to September 2011 (Phase 1) or October 2011 to March 2012 (Phase 2)
Activities must be a minimum of 6 and maximum of 8 weekly sessions and run for at least 1 hour
Target group must be aged between 14 and 25 and not be currently participating regularly in sport
Activity must provide new hours of sporting provision
Activities can be delivered at any time but cannot be during curriculum time for school/college students or be part of an academic course.
Planned activity must be able to evidence need and demand for participation Activities must be sustainable by providing an exit route for continued participation

To take advantage of Sportivate, please contact your local County Sports Partnership and make an application.
British Wrestling supports Sport England’s Sportivate goals. Their 40% retention targets can be assisted by running projects in close proximity to Wrestling Clubs, and building the cost of Recreational Membership (£5) into the project costings.

It is recommended that the 6-8 weeks of sessions incorporate the new White Award, to be launched shortly, culminating in the award of the certificate. Delivery of Sportivate sessions should be by appropriately qualified (BWA coaching qualifications) coaches.