Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s ‘Game On’ sport for change initiative launches Scottish activities

Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s ‘Game On’ sport for change initiative launches Scottish activities

Teams can win sports kit vouchers in new social media competition

A series of initiatives are kicking off as part of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s (CRT) ‘Game On’ sport for change programme in former mining communities across Scotland, including Football 5ives free activity sessions, grants being made available for clubs and a social media competition to win kit.

‘Game on’ was launched in Scotland this year as part of CRT’s work in helping mining communities recover from the devastating effects of pit closures by supporting a range of local initiatives. Through the direct delivery of sport-based activity ‘Game On’ aims to address the growing health, skills and employment inequalities for boys and girls within coalfield communities across the country.

Football 5ives for 11 to 17 year olds will be starting in venues in Fife and Clackmannanshire on 22 January. This involves free evening ‘turn up and play’ football activity sessions to provide positive and engaging activities for young people.

Applications for the ‘Game on Gear Grant’, which aims to get more young people from Scottish coalfield communities playing sport by reducing potential barriers, will go live in January.

And the Coalfields Community Cup will be held on 20 June at Alloa FC’s ground, The Indodrill Stadium, as long as Covid-19 restrictions enable it to take place.

The ‘Game On’ social media competition will launch on 15 December, with entries closing on 8 January 2021. For the keepy-uppy video challenge, young people are asked to like, retweet and share @Gameonscotland social media accounts and upload their completed challenge tagging their team and ‘Game on Scotland’ in the post. The winner will receive £500 Macron sports kit credit for their whole team.

CRT hopes that ‘Game On’ will help address the findings of the ‘The Scottish Coalfields in 2020’ report which examined socio-economic conditions in former coalmining communities. It found that mining communities are among the most deprived areas in Scotland, child poverty is more prevalent and employment is lower.

Sean Laird, ‘Game On’ development manager, said: “Poor health is one of the most widespread challenges coalfield communities face and the benefits of being physically active for people of all ages have been well-publicised. That’s why we’ve launched ‘Game On’ in Scotland to encourage healthy lifestyles and support young people and their families to be more active, more often.

“We would encourage people to sign up to the ‘Game On’ activities we are starting to roll out and to take part in our social media competition to win kit for their team and keep up to date with the ‘Game On’ programme.

“We’ll continue to work in partnership with others, including local authorities, the Scottish Football Association and Police Scotland, to develop many more regionally specific programmes.”

To enter the competition/follow – Twitter, Facebook or Instagram: @gameonscotland

Game On Keepy Uppy Challange

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