Active Lincolnshire wins £2.7m of Sport England funding

Active Lincolnshire is set to receive a five-year funding boost of almost £3 million to level up sport and physical activity.

A £2.7 million grant has come from Sport England, with Active Lincolnshire receiving expertise and support as well as government and National Lottery funding over the next five years.

Active Lincolnshire is among a group of more than 120 organisations working with Sport England to deliver its ambitious 10-year ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy.

It comes after research showed some groups are less typically active – such as women, people with long term health conditions and disabilities, as well as those form ethically diverse or lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The aim of Sport England is to plug that gap and offer more opportunities to all that want to get active, irregardless of their gender, bank balance or postcode.

The sporting body elected the organisations across the country based on their ability to influence change at the heart of their system, with Active Lincolnshire standing out from the crowd in that regard.

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of Sport England, said: “Sport England’s goal is to get everyone active– no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is.

“But we know that certain groups – like women, older adults, people with long-term health conditions, people with a disability, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups are more likely to be inactive.

“We can only innovate and tackle inequalities effectively by thinking about long-term change; Uniting the Movement is a long-term vision, and our funding approach needs to reflect that.

“Changes to our funding model will help us achieve our goal, by making it easier for our partners to do what they need to do to level up and deliver.”

Emma Tatlow, chief executive of Active Lincolnshire said “This very welcome five-year investment from Sport England enables Active Lincolnshire to provide the strategic coordination and communication for physical activity. We connect across multiple sectors, enabling people to build physical activity into their own work.

“Our role is around influence, advocacy and bringing organisations together to create long term sustainable change. We aim to tackle inequalities that people face in participation, advocating for equity and to really understand the people we are working to support.

“The Let’s Move Lincolnshire movement is a collaborative response to tackling the challenge of inactivity; and the Sport England investment into Active Lincolnshire will enable us to drive that strategy forward.”