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Sport England has today launched a £50million programme refurbish and improve up to 1000 community sports clubs.  The Inspired Facilities fund is part of the Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country.

Investment will be available to breathe new life into tired facilities that can be unattractive to sports participants, expensive to run and difficult to maintain, putting these clubs right back at the heart of their local communities. There will also be money available to convert existing buildings into venues that are suitable for grassroots sport.

Typical investments might be:

• A sprung floor that converts an unused hall into a local multi-sport facility.
• New changing rooms, so away teams no longer need to change in the car park.
• New floodlights that mean a facility can be used for many more hours of the day.

At least £35 million of the funding will go to community and voluntary organisations, through grants of between £20,000 and £50,000.  The remaining money will be open to a wider group of organisations, including councils and schools, with grants of up to £150,000 available.

Applicants whose project will benefit disadvantaged young people will also be invited to apply for funding from the Thomas Cook’s Children’s Charity from August this year.

Funding workshops

To help potential applicants to learn more about the fund, Sport England will be running workshops in eleven locations across the country. There will be three two-hour sessions per day, each one targeting a specific audience:

• 10:30am - local authorities, education establishments, parish and town councils
• 2.30pm - regional/local national governing body staff and county sports partnerships 
• 7pm - community and voluntary groups and sport clubs.  To allow as many clubs to benefit from this session we would prefer if only one representative could attend from each organisation.

Spaces will be allocated on a first come, first served basis so please register early to ensure you can attend. Please register by going to the Sport England website and filling in your name, organisation and contact details.

19 July: London
20 July: East - Newmarket
21 July: North East - Durham
25 July: South East - Guildford; South West - Bristol
26 July: South East - Tonbridge; South West - Exeter
28 July: North West - Bolton; West Midlands - Walsall
1 August: East Midlands - Leicester; Yorkshire - Sheffield
3 August: London

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