£1 Million Grant To Help BAME Children’s Outcomes

The Alliance of Sport, together with the Youth Justice Boards for England and Wales (YJB) have secured a £1,000,000 grant from the London Marathon Charitable Trust.

Thanks to match funding and in-kind resources, the grant has reached an impressive £1,700,000 that will be used to deliver a new ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ project.

The grant is the largest ever awarded by the London Marathon Charitable Trust as well as being the first criminal justice grant that they have awarded.

Using sport to improve the health and life outcomes for over 11,200 black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) children aged between 10-17, over the space of three years.

Focusing on those children who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system, as well as those already disproportionately involved in the system.

The project will aim to provide support and opportunities through sport and physical activity for children in target areas of London, the West Midlands, South Yorkshire and Gwent.

The project also looks to foster more active partnerships between sport and criminal justice agencies with an aim to develop an effective model that is fit for expansion across England and Wales.

Keith Fraser, YJB Board member, added:

“This grant from the Trust presents a significant opportunity to have a huge positive impact on the lives of many children. This initiative is building on the past work and entering new ground in a focused and evidenced way.”

The news of the project comes after The Sentencing Council’s research results on the association between an offender’s sex and ethnicity.

Drawing on statistics from Crown Court records between 2012 and 2015, it was found that males were 2.4 times more likely to receive an immediate custodial sentence over women, as well as the sentence being an average of 14% longer.

The research also found that BAME individuals faced a ‘bias in court’, with a higher likelihood of being sent to prison for drug offences than white individuals.

The Sentencing Council chair, Lord Justice Holroyde, said:

“The nature of offending is also changing and we are seeing more vulnerable people including children being exploited either through grooming or coercion.”

It is well documented that sport and activity can help tackle crime amongst and by young people.

In 2017 Sport England awarded the National Alliance of Sport for the Desistance of Crime (NASDC) funding from the National lottery to look into how sport can be used to help tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Discussing the benefits of sports on society and crime prevention, The Alliance of Sport’s Ambassador, the Rt Hon Lord McNally said:

“…the multiple benefits it produces in saving future victims from the trauma of crime, saving the taxpayer the cost of incarceration and rehabilitation, and giving young people the life-skills they need to make a positive contribution to society. It will provide powerful ammunition for those arguing for a sports strategy being an integral part of our forward thinking about youth justice”