Sport England has given QPR in the Community Trust’s Tiger Cubs football team a major boost in the form of an £18,000-plus investment.
Funded through Sportsmatch, a Sport England initiative which brings additional funding to not-for-profit organisations that have secured sponsorship to deliver new sporting projects, the investment matches a recent donation by Global Initiative – a registered charity founded by QPR Holdings Limited Vice-Chairman Amit Bhatia.
The investment will increase sports participation for children, young people and adults with Downs Syndrome across four London boroughs.
“The opportunity to try a new sport for the first time is often all a person needs to catch the sporting bug,” said Hannah Bladen, Sport England’s Regional Strategic Lead for London. “The QPR Tigers and Tiger Cubs project is a great way for children and adults with Downs Syndrome to try football and have a quality sporting experience that will encourage them to stay involved.”
Founded in 2008, the Tiger Cubs project has gone from strength to strength and is a scheme that the Community Trust, QPR and its fans are extremely proud of.
Sport England’s grant will allow the Trust to deliver new Tiger Cubs sessions for children and young people in the boroughs of Hillingdon, Brent and Westminster.
In addition, a new adults session called the ‘QPR Tigers’ will be launched in Hammersmith Fulham.
Crucially, the money will enable the Trust to employ a Disability Officer to lead these sessions.
“In our drive to increase the amount of opportunities for those with Downs Syndrome to participate in football, we are delighted that Sport England through their Sportsmatch scheme are assisting us to achieve this goal,” said QPR Community Trust CEO Andy Evans. “This award of much needed funds will enable us to more than double the provision and reach more families across the whole of West London.”
Minor changes made to the Sportsmatch scheme now mean that more clubs can benefit from funding. Where in previous rounds it was only open to clubs who had obtained new sponsorship deals, funding is now available to clubs with existing relationships with sponsors as long as it is for new projects. These changes recognise the hard work done by sports clubs to maintain relationships with local businesses. The scheme matches eligible sponsorship pound for pound, up to a maximum value of £100,000.
