Bradford project scores £10,000 National Lottery goal to help disadvantaged young people enjoy sport

Action For Sport – a Bradford-based project with a goal to collect good-quality, second-hand sportswear and pass it on to children who need it - is celebrating after receiving a National Lottery cash boost of £10,000. This vital funding has been awarded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

The project’s co-founders, Andrew Kenure and Clive Michallat, are on a mission to ensure that local children can still enjoy sport, regardless of whether their families can afford the football boots or trainers they need to take part.

From their experiences in schools and football clubs, Andrew and Clive understand the importance of not making children and families feel like they’re receiving handouts. The project goes into schools and invites pupils and students to choose what they want – ensuring the process is quick and easy for busy teachers to facilitate.

It’s been at least three years of hard work for Andrew and Clive to get to this point. The early days of their project were spent driving around, in their spare time, picking up donations, setting up storage in their own houses, chipping mud off donated boots, and making connections with local groups and organisations.

Clive said: “Recently we went into a school and a parent approached us and said: ‘You just don’t know the power of what you do. My son is like a different child when he pulls those football boots on. His confidence has increased, he’s joined a local team and he’s making more friends and mixing with lots of different people.’”

Andrew said: “Without National Lottery players, projects like ours couldn’t exist. Clive and I have made huge personal sacrifices to get this project up and running but, without the funding, we couldn’t continue. Everything we do, from getting the boots cleaned to paying our insurances costs money and we couldn’t cover all those costs ourselves. The funding will also enable us to branch out into other areas of Bradford that we haven’t worked in yet and hopefully start going into secondary schools too.”

He continued: “And it’s a real ‘sliding doors’ moment because you think, what would that boy’s life be like if he hadn’t got those boots? Would he have developed diabetes down the line or ended up getting into trouble as a teenager? The impact on children’s lives of getting them involved in sport really cannot be underestimated.”

Clive and Andrew have close links with Bradford boy and Manchester United rising star Mason Greenwood, who has been hugely supportive of the project and donated kits and football boots. In the future, they would love to see their idea grow, and to work in partnership with organisations up and down the country to set up similar projects. As well as the social impact of the project there is a huge environmental benefit: in the four months since Andrew and Clive set up the project, they have saved almost two tons of clothing and equipment that could have gone into landfill.

Joe Dobson, Head of Funding for Yorkshire and Humber at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, this vital funding will have a huge impact on young people’s lives across Bradford.

“The last year has been incredibly challenging for communities and we applaud the volunteers and groups that have been a lifeline to so many. As we all look to the future, we’re excited to see how local groups will use this funding to further support their communities to prosper and thrive.”

Bradford isn’t alone in benefiting from National Lottery funding. Today it was announced that over £65 million has been distributed to over 1,920 community organisations across England in the past three months*.

Thanks to National Lottery players, this will fund things that matter to communities, such as economic prosperity, employment, young people, mental health, loneliness and helping the UK reach NET Zero by 2050.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK, helping people and communities to build back from the pandemic to prosper and thrive. During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk