Fight for Peace has been awarded a second round of funding through Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities Fund (TIF) to help reduce the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the widening impact of the inequalities in sport and physical activity.
This funding will enable Fight for Peace to provide small grants to a wide range of Alliance member organisations across England. Applications from Alliance member organisations interested in being part of this round of funding are now open, with full details on how to apply appearing at the end of this article.
The Tackling Inequalities Fund (TIF) is built on insight from a wide range of sources that showed that not all people were being affected equally by COVID-19. Many of the groups being adversely affected were ones already facing inequalities in sport and physical activity.
During the first TIF programme that Fight for Peace was involved in, which began in 2020, Alliance member organisations from across England adapted their services to meet the additional and changing needs of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. One participating organisation, Sheffield City Boxing Club, were able to build an outdoor boxing gym through the programme.
“The development of our outside space through the TIF funding has been a real positive for our club,” explained Founder, Brendan Warbuton.
“As we were one of the first organisations that could re-open, it came as a relief to the local community. The outdoor training was also a good advertisement for us, as a lot more people in the community could see what we do that they may not have if we had been in our gym, behind closed doors.”
Aside from supporting sports organisations during the pandemic, Sport England also set out to capture learnings about their work and reach priority audiences during the pandemic. Many of the learnings emerging from Fight for Peace Alliance member organisations were captured in the Fighting Back podcast series.
Insights included how sports coaches have become more involved in mentoring young people, while parents have played an active part in encouraging young people to engage in sports. Insights also emphasised how important it was to maintain multiple communications channels to stay connected to young people, and how inadequate technology and IT capacity delayed reaction times when adapting services.
If you are a Fight for Peace Alliance member organisation in England and want to know more about applying for a TIF grant with Fight for Peace please contact Ana Vacas – ana.vacas@fightforpeace.net.