Versus Arthritis has teamed up with Sport England to help distribute £250,000 grants from their ‘Tackling Inequalities’ fund on behalf of the Richmond Group of Charities. The purpose of the fund is to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and the widening of the inequalities in sport and physical activity through increasing availability of exercise opportunities in local communities.
The funding will be targeted to help support people with long-term health conditions, Black, Asian minority ethnic groups and lower socio-economic groups.
In addition to the Tackling Inequalities fund, Versus Arthritis has secured funding to open the fund UK wide and will be running the Let’s Move Together fund. This fund will be available to support people with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions to get active.
This funding will enable community groups working with these audiences to continue to exist and engage with their communities, with a view to keeping them active during both the lockdown and early recovery stages.
This is a targeted fund that’s been designed to deal with the ‘here and now’ issues caused as a result of coronavirus and aims to support community organisations working with priority audiences so they have a future to plan for.
As well as supporting specific activities to increase availability of exercise opportunities in local communities, this fund will also support organisations and groups facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis, with a view of enabling delivery of sport and physical activity work in the future.
The types of activity that might be funded could include:
- Funding for community groups to find new ways of keeping active during this time
- Offering advice and training support
- Increasing resilience, capacity and capability of delivery bodies.
More details on the fund can be accessed on the Inspiring active communities page on the Versus Arthritis website.
To support the review and award of funding applications Versus Arthritis is creating an independent panel of external experts. VA is looking for people with expertise and interest in tackling inequalities with a passion for making a difference to the availability of exercise opportunities in local communities. If you think this sounds like you, please fill out the application form to apply. [Microsoft Office form]