The Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund supports deserving community sports projects close to Samworth Brothers’ locations. The Fund was launched in October 2013 and has made over 200 financial awards and commitments to date, totalling over £2 million.

Organisations and sports clubs that have benefited from our awards have included:

  • Leicester Warriors Basketball Club
  • Waterfront Sports and Education Academy
  • Leicester Electric Cricket Club
  • MOVE charity
  • Saffron Young People’s Project
  • Leicestershire County Netball Association
  • Melton Mowbray Swimming Club
  • Callington Cricket Club
  • Plymouth Amateur Rowing Club
  • YMCA Plymouth
  • Launceston Cricket Club
  • Leicester Hockey Club
  • Leicester Young Heroes basketball club
  • Leicester & Rutland Youth Sailing Association
  • Leicester Riders Foundation

Waterfront benefits from grants and ongoing advice

Waterfront Sports and Education Academy is a community venue where groups and individuals can enjoy a wide range of boxing and other sporting activities.

The Leicester-based charity is focused on engaging hard-to-reach groups and especially targets women and girls, the BAME community, and those from lower income backgrounds.

As a recipient of the Sports Opportunity Fund, Waterfront has been able to employ a full-time centre manager so that it can now operate six days a week. Samworth Brothers also assigned a colleague with managerial and sports experience as a mentor to Waterfront. He provides ongoing business advice and strategic direction and is always just a phone call away.

Waterfront CEO, Tara Burgess, said: “Thanks to the grants from the Sports Opportunity Fund, we can now offer a full programme of ‘pay as you go’ fitness activities from Monday to Saturday.

“As well as developing physical and mental wellbeing, our activities also encourage confidence and increased self-esteem. With the help of Samworth Brothers, we’re using sports as a vehicle for positive change.”

Covid-19 Bounce-Back Fund

Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund has helped over 35 clubs get back up and running with more than £48,000 of grants from its Covid-19 Bounce-Back Fund, with more grants in the pipeline.

Fund Chairman Stephen Draisey said: “The clubs we support are very concerned at the impact of isolation and inactivity on young people because of Covid. It’s vital to get them back and taking part in sport as soon as it is practical and safe to do.

“The clubs are planning to use the money in many different ways. Some are catching up with pitch and other facility maintenance or securing additional facility space because of social distancing. Or they are planning to help out young people and families who are finding it hard to pay for activity sessions. Some are using it to pay for Covid-related costs such as cleaning and sanitiser products.”

We’ve had great feedback from our clubs.

  • “The best news ever… this grant will definitely allow us to survive.”
    CKI Martial Arts
  • “Support like this will make a really significant difference to us and will help us reopen and be able to offer opportunities for all our disabled riders.”
    Riding for the Disabled
  • “The bounce back award has enabled us to get some lights fixed so that we can train on dark nights. Replaced, obtained and improved where necessary, equipment meaning that once the lock down has ended, we are able to start an academy for any child that wishes to give football ago in the future from the ages of five upwards. We have been able to replace goal nets meaning we comply with league requirements. More importantly we have been able to create an environment safe for children to play during this pandemic. All this from the very generous award. Thank you.”
    Melton Town Foxes
  • “The increase in space for launching and getting out of the water will hugely improve the quality of the experience for all people accessing paddle sport at the LOPC. A huge thank you to the Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund.”
    Leicester Outdoor Pursuit Centre which used the funds to build a new and accessible kayak launch area
  • “We are very grateful for the kind donation …with the grant we secured four sets of new blades allowing us to restore some single crewed boats back to the water again. This year we are hoping that some of our rowers who started as juniors here in Plymouth will represent the nation at the Tokyo Olympics. This couldn’t be done without the help of local businesses supporting their communities and we thank Samworth Brothers for their continued assistance over the years.”
    Plymouth Amateur Rowing Club
  • “The funding gave us the ability to bring in an extra coach twice a week who would support our classes. The club needed to extend its classes as, due to social distancing, we were restricted to the number of people we can have in one class. Due to the risk of infection, the club could no longer allow equipment such as gloves and skipping ropes to be shared therefore the funding allowed us to purchase additional equipment such as boxing gloves and skipping ropes. The funding really helped our club through this difficult time as it allowed us to continue delivering our services to the youth in our community.”
    Leicester Combat Academy

Who is eligible for the Sports Opportunity Fund?

The Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund has two grant funds;

  • a Colleague Sponsored Award fund for projects nominated by Samworth Brothers colleagues.
  • a Sports Development Award fund which supports larger projects each year. Multi-year projects of up to three years are also considered. These don’t require a Samworth Brothers colleague nomination.

Projects need to fit with the Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund overall criteria. All applications to the Fund need to fulfil the following criteria.

Geographic

We support projects in areas where a Samworth Brothers business is an integral and important part of the local community.

Supporting our local communities through sport

Projects should support the social and economic development of Samworth Brothers local communities by helping young people develop confidence, self-esteem and better life skills through sport.

In our larger grant awards we also look for evidence that our awards will improve access to sport for young people in particularly hard to reach and disadvantaged groups. In particular we’re looking to fund projects in sports clubs that will help grow or develop the opportunities in sport that a club can offer young people.

Examples of the types of activities we prefer to fund include:

  • projects to extend club coaching capabilities
  • the ability to put on new club evenings or new sessions for different age groups or gender
  • plans to extend to new locations to reach more young people
  • other schemes to improve young person participation.

If you’d like more information or an application form, please email sportsopportunityfund@samworthbrothers.co.uk