“By evolving our partnership with Access Sport, we’ll be able to support thousands more children and young people to increase their activity levels through basketball and cycling"

Today Access Sport celebrates its continuing partnership with the London Marathon Foundation. They will be supporting Access Sport and our mission to transform young disadvantaged and disabled people's lives through sport over the next three years.

This investment of £1.37m will enable Access Sport to support thousands of disadvantaged children and young people to participate in inclusive basketball and cycling activities in London and across the UK.

This builds on a previous partnership between the London Marathon Foundation and Access Sport, which saw more than £900,000 invested between 2018 and 2022 to create more inclusive cycling opportunities for children and young people from disadvantaged communities across the UK.

The partnership will enable Access Sport to deliver to many new communities and build relationships with new partners, from national governing bodies to local community organisations. As well as engage with a diverse range of children and young people, increasing our knowledge and understanding of the barriers to accessing sport whilst changing their lives for the better!

The scale of what we will be achieving by 2025 due to London Marathon Foundation's funding:

• 12 new and enhanced community facilities will be delivered in underserved communities
• 250 community cycling and basketball clubs will be enhanced, activated and left in a more sustainable and inclusive position.
• 880 coaches, volunteers and young leaders will be upskilled to lead inclusive community sport activities.
• Over 8,000 Young people from underserved communities will directly benefit.

We believe more needs to be done to level the playing field and make inclusion, for disadvantaged and disabled young people, the norm within community sport.

Our target demographic includes 60% of participants from the most deprived areas, 50% female, 40% from ethnically diverse communities, and 20% disabled people. These young people will engage with our programmes either through direct outreach or by joining community clubs.

Helen Rowbotham, Access Sport CEO said “On behalf of the children and young people we support, we would like to say a huge thank you to The London Marathon Foundation for their partnership with Access Sport. Over the next three years we will scale up our inclusion activity across cycling and basketball using our partnership to positively impact over 8,000 young people from underserved communities by 2025. This will unlock key benefits for these young people including physical and mental health and well-being, personal development including life skills and prospects, sense of belonging, and community engagement. This is a game changing partnership for our beneficiaries.”

Catherine Anderson, London Marathon Foundation’s Executive Director, said "Creating safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces for children and young people to be active outside of school is paramount for their physical and mental wellbeing, and is part of our ambitious vision of Inspiring Activity for all regardless of age, ability or background.

By evolving our partnership with Access Sport, we’ll be able to support thousands more children and young people to increase their activity levels through basketball and cycling, especially those who need more help to be active. Together, we’ll continue delivering our shared objectives in a truly inclusive way, and enable more children and young people to experience the transformational benefits that being active can bring to their lives.”

We are grateful for all the support and funding London Marathon Foundation has given and continue to provide over the upcoming years!

For more information on how to partner with Access Sport and get involved in our Changing Sports cycling and basketball work please contact [email protected].

Keep an eye on upcoming events and reports about this work including Access Sport's Cycling School Games on the 14^th of July and our basketball court redevelopment project later in the year.