Lincoln Basketball CIC have been awarded a £4810 grant from Sport England’s Together Fund. The funding will enable the creation of affordable opportunities to participate in basketball and ongoing training and development for communities in this area. The project will provide life-enhancing changes to health, wellbeing and employability, for participants involved.

The club are the first Lincolnshire organisation to receive Together Funding, which Active Lincolnshire are distributing in Lincolnshire on behalf of Sport England. This National Lottery funding is a continuation of the Tackling Inequalities fund, which has supported over 50 projects in the county, reaching over 10,000 Lincolnshire residents since 2020. The Together Fund exists to help to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and support community groups working with our target audiences to grow and enable more people be more active.

Lincoln Basketball will use the funding to develop a series of 3x3 basketball events and Youth Activator sessions. The sessions and events will bring together the wider community, highlighting local service opportunities for sport, health, recreation, education, and employment. The club is based within one of the 10 percent most deprived areas in England, and the funding will enable the creation of affordable opportunities to participate in local sport and ongoing training and development for communities in this area. The Youth Activator sessions aim to remove barriers to participation for young people by providing high-quality coaching and sports clothing to participants. By engaging young people in physical activity, the hope is the project will lead to a reduction in antisocial behaviour and crime, and potentially increased employment opportunities.

The project will also lead to the development of trained All Nations coaches and officials to sustain opportunities that are led and driven by volunteers and leaders from the wider community. As part of the All Nations Basketball events, the sessions will create opportunities for volunteers to become decision makers on the growth and sustainability of the project.

Find out more about the funding and successful programmes here.