How we've already helped

Sporting opportunities

During 2011, Activate Sport Foundation and The Co-operative offered individual children a package of opportunities within a project managed by Activate Sport that gave them both immediate and long term benefits. Through consultation with sports governing bodies we identified children who were facing personal difficulties and yet had a desire to improve themselves as sports people.

For the Andrew Flintoff Cricket Academy package, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club identified Cole Pierre, who is a very talented wicket keeper batsman from the county under 11’s that has a great ability to encourage and enthuse other members of the squad he is involved with. Cole also has a brother in the county set up and his family have struggled to pay for many of the coaching and kit, but this has never stopped the family as they do go to any lengths to get the boys involved.

Cole attended the King Edward School, Bath non-residential Academy, and also The Bloxham School residential Academy. The Academy is designed to build on natural talent as well as introduce new skills and opportunities for learning. Within different peer groups Cole undertook a variety of coaching sessions every day which included batting, bowling and fielding skills. Each day Cole took part in Freddie Challenges and games designed to promote the mental development of players by having to adapt to different situations.

A testimonial from Tom Bryan, Head Coach, “Cole brought an enormous amount of enthusiasm to the Academy and was clearly held in high esteem by his peers both in terms of his abilities and leadership qualities. He built a strong rapport with the other players and his confidence grew throughout the week. I am sure that Cole can have a long future in cricket.”

Inner City London Schools Coaching Programme

The Activate Sport Foundation and Primrose Hill Cricket Club worked in partnership to provide cricket coaching in four schools within Inner City London during the 2011 summer term. The coaches taught a group of 25 children under the age of 12 years old each week over a four week period at all of the schools. This coaching culminated in a free cricket Academy at Regent’s Park for 80 children in the local community during the third week in August this year.

The term time coaching programme and the Academy were designed to provide high quality cricket coaching and activities to engage the children taking part and to help promote a lifelong passion for cricket.

The 80 children that attended the free cricket Academy were all aged between 6-15 years old. They were invited from various Inner City London schools, including the schools that were coached in, where cricket is not part of the curriculum or timetable, and is not easily accessible.

The children thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills and taking part in special challenges throughout the week, and many have developed a hunger to play more and have accessed local clubs as a result. There was a special visit from ex-England cricketer, Alex Tudor, who took part in coaching sessions and faced a ball from every player. Each player also received a special Academy bat grip and PUMA cricket shirt as part of the project.