Sports clubs to benefit from grants

The Bridgend YMCA has been awarded the maximum Community Chest grant to help them train more volunteers and offer more activities to boost young people’s mental and physical wellbeing.

To help achieve the YMCA’s aims of making their centre on Angel Street become a hub of activity for more local youngsters, they’ll be using the grant to provide welcoming and safe sports sessions for children who are suffering from anxiety as well as those who have been diagnosed with autism.

The YMCA will also use the grant to target local people aged 18 or over who are not in employment, education or training so that they can be trained up to become involved with the centre’s many voluntary opportunities through their ‘Y Give Time Project’.

The Community Chest grant scheme is a Sport Wales funded initiative that is run locally by Bridgend County Borough Council with applications considered by a panel of volunteers. Grants of up to £1,500 are available so that sports clubs, organisations and groups can help more people to get more active, more often.

In the latest round of grants, five local clubs and organisations have shared over £7,000 between them, with Llangynwyd Rangers Boys and Girls FC also receiving the maximum award to help pay for the costs of their project.

Another club set to benefit from the Community Chest scheme is Porthcawl Cricket Club who will spend their grant on setting up a new girls-only under 9s team, expanding their opportunities for teenagers to play T20 cricket at u17s and u19s level and training more coaches and parent volunteers.

Penybont Gymnastics Club have also received a grant to pay for coaching courses, while Cefn Cribwr Athletic RFC have been awarded funding to help create junior rugby sessions for their youngest generation of budding players.

The Community Chest scheme has provided support to hundreds of sporting clubs, organisations and groups in Bridgend County Borough over the years, investing over a million pounds in helping them to expand and increase opportunities to be active, buy new equipment and up-skill volunteers.

The panel are particularly interested in receiving applications from groups that want to create more inclusive opportunities that support people with disabilities, women and girls, and disadvantaged communities.

Clubs, organisations and groups across the county borough can apply for a maximum grant of £1,500 each year, so if you need a helping hand to create or improve your sporting opportunities then I’d encourage you to submit an application.

Councillor Dhanisha Patel, Bridgend County Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations

For more information about the Community Chest scheme, please visit the Sports Wales Website or contact Andrew Jones at Bridgend County Borough Council on 01656 642745 or andrew.jones2@bridgend.gov.uk.