New Fund to Promote Sports in Rural Areas

Sport England has announced that its new £10 million fund to create sporting opportunities for people in rural areas is now open for applications. This is the first in a series of themed funding rounds aimed at increasing community based sports.

The Rural Communities Themed Round is designed to give a wide range of organisations, from local authorities to sports clubs and smaller community groups, an opportunity to develop and deliver new and innovative projects to overcome barriers to both participation and supply of sporting opportunities.

Successful bids will make significant contributions to two of Sport England’s strategic outcomes:

• Growing participation in grassroots sport
• Sustaining participation by improving the quality of people’s sporting experience

The minimum grant available is £10,000 but, in order to maximise the positive effect on sport in rural areas, Sport England is explicitly encouraging high value, high impact projects.

A significant proportion of the successful bids are expected to be projects requiring National Lottery funding of more than £500,000. A detailed application prospectus for the Rural Communities Themed Round is available on Sport England’s website.

The closing date for applications is the 30th June 2009.