Sharks Community Trust
Registered Charity Number: 1142956
About the charity
Sharks Community Trust uses the power of sport and rugby to provide life-changing opportunities in education, health and wellbeing across the North West.
How the £50,000 grant will help
The initial £10,000 will be used for our ‘Positive Futures’ programme which will be delivered by experienced and qualified staff on behalf of Sharks Community Trust using sport and rugby as a focus to engage young people aged 18-24 who are, or at risk of, homelessness across Manchester. The project will work in association with Centre point, the charity which supports young homeless people in the city and will provide a range of activities that will support personal development and will aim to improve mental and physical wellbeing.
The project will identify and engage twenty young people per year in a weekly two-hour session. The first hour will be dedicated to physical activity, to help promote cohesion, team building, and relationships between participants. With participants in a positive mind-set, the second half of activities will focus on personal development, with activities ranging from work preparation through to group-based mental resilience support
The additional funding from Movement for Good will enable Sharks Community Trust to develop its alternative education provision to support young people aged between 14-24 who have disengaged from formal education and recognised pathways into employment. Increasing numbers of young people are now being excluded from mainstream education as schools and colleges are finding it difficult to cope with the increase in behaviour problems they are seeing caused by pupils who have been out of a classroom environment for large periods of time over the last two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The funding will enable the charity to appoint two new education officers to support young people within a variety of community settings who are at risk of being excluded and who are likely to be engaging in anti-social behaviour. This programme will help at least 150 participants living in some of the most deprived communities across the North West improve their confidence, develop strong life skills, participate in volunteering and work placement opportunities and gain qualifications to help provide them with the reset they require to be able to pathway back into employment or training.
Quotation
“We are delighted that Sharks Community Trust has been chosen to receive an additional Movement for Good grant. The charity is dedicating to changing lives amongst the community it works with and this additional funding will help us work with more people, in more areas, particularly those that need it most as they have been disproportionately negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Alison Warwood, CEO, Sharks Community Trust
