More young people in Nottingham will have the chance to change their lives through sport thanks to new investment.
The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation has received almost £300,000 from the National Lottery's #iwill Fund, an investment pot to support social action opportunities.
The Foundation, which is one of the projects under the Universities for Nottingham collaboration, aims to use sport as a tool to help children and young people overcome violence, discrimination and disadvantage.
Their project involves a unique coalition of partners to recruit and train students from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University as young leaders.
The leaders then go into local primary schools in underprivileged areas to deliver sport and physical activity sessions and help young people develop their own social action projects.
The aim is to teach life skills through sport and physical activity to help pupils with the transition from primary to secondary schools.
The Foundation received a National Lottery award from the Potentials Fund in 2017, aimed at young people aged 10-20 who want to give their time to use sport and physical activity as a tool to help others as well as themselves.
The #iwill Fund, has been made possible thanks to a £50 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It has awarded £286,000 to grow the Nottingham Sport for Good programme across the city, involving more schools.
"These projects have also empowered young people to have a voice and make a difference to causes they care about in their local area."
Kristen Natale, Head of Volunteering at Sport England, said: "These projects have also empowered young people to have a voice and make a difference to causes they care about in their local area.
"These awards are an exciting next stage in our partnership with the #iwill Fund, and together we are looking forward to building on the success of these projects to enable even more young people across England to experience the benefits of youth social action."
The Universities for Nottingham initiative brings together the strengths and expertise of Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.
The ambition of the universities is to work with local partners to design and deliver programmes to create transformative change for the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
It draws from the recommendations of the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission which looked at how universities can most successfully serve their place in the 21st century.
