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April 21, 2023
New UK charity, the LTA Tennis Foundation, announced this week that it will provide up to £1.5 million in grants for a range of tennis projects that support disabled people, lower socio-economic groups, mental health and the rehabilitation of ex-offenders and families living in temporary accommodation. The charity wants to use the sport to make a real difference to people across Great Britain.
The Foundation was created when the association’s existing charities, the Tennis Foundation and The LTA Trust merged towards a wider vision of ‘tennis opened up’. It is a grant and loan-making entity where funding will solely be directed to grassroots aspects of the game with a focus on diverse and underserved communities that may lack tennis opportunities. The Foundation plans to collaborate with other charities and third sector organizations to challenge the status quo and invest in projects that improve lives through tennis.
LTA Tennis Foundation opened its first application window at the end of 2022 and received applications from a diverse range of tennis organizations, projects and charities. Grants were approved across three years based on criteria focused on eligibility, assurance, capability, relevance, benefits and value. A second application window will open later this year.
A few of the grant recipients include:
- Living Well UK’s ‘Tennis Got Served’ project will receive funding to support children living in temporary accommodation in developing their physical health and mental well-being as well as increasing their confidence, reducing social isolation and bringing together people from different backgrounds.
- The Hertfordshire Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders (HACRO) will introduce a tennis element with the funding to its TurnAround project, which launched on 1 January 2023 to provide timely support to ex-offenders in their journey to becoming productive members of their communities. The programme provides participants with an individual mentor, formal training in life skills, literacy support and a range of activities designed to enhance their skills and physical and mental well-being.
- Access Sport will create and launch a new disability-inclusive tennis offer for children and young people, which will equip and support clubs in building knowledge and confidence in disability inclusion. Initially launching in three locations across 10 clubs, this one-year test and learn project will enable Access Sport to shape the offer and create a national programme with new resources that will enable them to scale the project nationally.
- Over the next three years, Greenhouse Sports Ltd.‘s will expand its Greenhouse Gamechangers project so that thousands more young people aged nine to 16 from communities facing poverty will discover the joy of tennis. The funding will also scale up its tennis coaching and mentoring activities working with partner schools as well as expanding outside London to key regional hubs such as Portsmouth and Leicester.
“The LTA and its charities have been a transformational partner for our charity for more than a decade, supporting our coaching and mentoring work to bring tennis to communities that are otherwise the least likely to experience this great game,” said recipient Béatrice Butsana-Sita, CEO of Greenhouse Sports.
“We are delighted that in the spirit of the partnership, this new funding from the LTA Tennis Foundation supports the expansion of Greenhouse’s coaching into primary schools so we can work with younger age groups and now provide Greenhouse support through a child’s entire school career.”
Full list of grantees:
- Access Sport CIO
- Action For Children
- Everyone 4 Sport CIC
- Hertfordshire Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders
- Hinckley Town Tennis Club
- Living Well UK
- Birkenhead Wellbeing Camps
- Pride in Tennis
- Sundridge Park Tennis and Squash Ltd
- The Change Foundation
- The Sport Legacy Foundation
- Bright Ideas for Tennis
- Everton in the Community
- Give It Your Max
- Greenhouse Sports Ltd
- Rackets Cubed
- Sport in Mind
- Tennis For Free
- The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust
- The Queen’s Club Foundation
- The Tim Henman Foundation
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