Best Sports Charity (or best use of sport by a charity)

Everton in the Community

Everton in the Community is one of the UK’s top sporting charities and is considered one of the Premier League’s leading community schemes due to the quality and reach of its programmes Recently visited by The Duke of Cambridge to find out more about its work and how it uses its influence to support its fans and community and address key social issues affecting the local community.
EitC has been at the forefront of social intervention across the Liverpool City Region since 1988. Everton Football Club resides in the Kirkdale ward of Liverpool, which is in the most deprived 5% of neighbourhoods nationally. More than half of the children in the area live in poverty while the area in general faces challenges such as high unemployment, crime and health, housing and education problems. The charity delivers more than 40 programmes a year, specifically designed and developed to combat these challenges which are prevalent across Merseyside Its social programmes tackle issues such as mental health, employability, dementia, education, disability, poverty and homelessness .
The charity’s programmes support people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds from over 130 venues across the city region and is open and inclusive to all.

Lords Taverners

Wicketz is a cricket programme for young people aged 8-19, living in deprived communities. By establishing sustainable community cricket hubs, we provide year-round weekly cricket sessions with a focus on breaking down barriers, developing crucial life skills, creating stronger communities and enabling brighter futures for those taking part. Through cricket, Wicketz aims to tackle local issues affecting young people and their communities. Alongside cricket coaching and games, the young people taking part have the chance to learn from role models, community leaders, local authorities and others. Specially designed workshops also boost well being, social education, community awareness, promote positive life choices and develop new life skills.

Rackets Cubed

Founded in late 2016, Rackets Cubed is a charity that delivers integrated sport, education and nutrition programs with the aims of improving the lives and aspirations of vulnerable and disadvantaged primary school children.
We partner local “Aspirational Hosts” (e.g. Imperial, Roehampton and Hull Universities) with inner-city schools with high “Income Deprivation” ratings. The hosts provide access, court time and teaching infrastructure free of charge. Our model delivers weekly sessions of 2 to 2.5 hours focusing on
• Combining high quality physical activity with
• STEM and robotics teaching, and
• Nutritional support
We currently have 14 programmes operating across 9 Sites, in 5 Cities (London, Hull, Birmingham, Leeds and Wakefield). We run programs for the academic year with children of those schools. In a typical London program we have 50+% children eligible for free school meals, 80% BME and c. 75% having English as a second language.
We have recently secured funding from London Marathon Charitable Trust, the Co-op, St. James Place Foundation, Sir John Cass Foundation, Sports England and the National Lottery to help us scale the concept nationally.

The Children’s Hospital Charity

Here at The Children’s Hospital Charity, we are proud to provide funding to Sheffield Children’s Hospital to fund specialist goods and services that the NHS does not cover. The Hospital is internationally renowned and as such, children come from all over the country to see our hospital’s specialists with stays ranging from a few hours through to several months. The money raised at the Charity buys life-saving equipment, funds vital research and treatment for thousands of children whilst helping us create a comfortable, engaging environment for our patients.
The innovative partnership between Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity and Sheffield Junior League, brings together young people residing across the city in support of this good cause. Youngsters across Sheffield are having a huge impact on those children less fortunate than themselves, all whilst experiencing the joy of playing amateur football. Sheffield Junior League’s efforts in raising in excess of £20,000 annually, alongside a lucrative sponsorship package sourced by the Charity is a unique model and one which is hoped to be replicated UK wide in the coming years.

The Royal British Legion

The Royal British Legion is the nation’s biggest Armed Forces charity providing support to veterans, Service men and women and their families. We are the champions of remembrance and organise the Poppy Appeal, so those who died as a result of service in the Armed Forces are remembered.
As part of our ongoing partnership, Premier League clubs mark Remembrance by arranging match day activities in conjunction with the Legion and continue the tradition of incorporating the Legion’s poppy motif onto the players’ shirts, worn during matches across the nominated weekends.
Through our partnership with the Premier League, the Legion is able to achieve some of its core objectives: maximising fundraising income, encouraging a mass sports audience to participate in Remembrance and heightening brand awareness during the Legion’s most important part of the year.
In 2019, income was generated through a number of fundraising activities such as match day collections, coordinated by local British Legion fundraisers, sales of dual branded pin badges and auction of match worn poppy shirts. Supported by the Legion, Remembrance and Poppy Appeal activities happened across all stadiums to a global audience and an estimated stadium attendance of 766,000.

Youth Sport Trust

The Youth Sport Trust is a UK children’s charity which for 25 years has pioneered new ways of using sport and play to improve children’s wellbeing and give them a brighter future. We want to ensure that every child — regardless of age, gender, background or ability — has the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of an active lifestyle and has access to high quality PE and school sport. We passionately believe this is crucial to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing today’s generation of children and young people at a time when childhood obesity rates continue to rise and young people’s mental health is in decline.
The programmes we develop and deliver use the power of physical activity to enhance young people’s wellbeing and equip them with the skills to achieve in the classroom and in life.
We operate throughout the UK, working with around 20,000 schools and last year our sister charity YST international worked in 25 countries.
In the last academic year we helped 630,000 children participate in and lead sport and physical activity, helping to improve their wellbeing, life skills and achievement in school.