LTA & LTA Tennis Foundation support campaign to create a healthier and more sustainable future through sport
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The LTA and LTA Tennis Foundation, both members of the Sport for Development Coalition, will mark the UN’s International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) on 6 April by supporting the second anniversary of the #OpenGoal framework.
The Sport for Development Coalition is a UK-wide movement of 400-plus charities and civil society organisations, leagues, clubs and networks over-arching thousands of programmes intentionally using targeted sport and physical activity-based interventions to address health and societal inequalities.
#OpenGoal, led by the Sport for Development Coalition and fellow members of the group aims to highlight how sport and physical activity can contribute to building a healthier, more equitable and sustainable future.
What is the #OpenGoal framework?
The framework has been designed to target five main areas of societal need.
- Improved health and wellbeing
- Closing the gap in education
- Increased employability skills
- Reduced crime and anti social behaviors
- Stronger communities and social cohesion
Tennis plays a vital role in keeping the nation active as a sport that can be played by all, no matter their age, background or ability. Tennis provides significant physical and mental health benefits to participants, bringing communities together, and developing important life skills and resilience.
The LTA deliver numerous programmes that fulfil the aims of the framework such as LTA SERVES, LTA Youth, and Open Court – these programmes are supported by funding from LTA Tennis Foundation
In addition to this, LTA Tennis Foundation awards funding through its grant making programme which enables experts in their communities to deliver life changing sport for development programmes. These organisations all form part of the Foundation's charity network which has been developed as a place to share knowledge and best practice.
Find out more about some of these game changing programmes:
LTA SERVES
The LTA’s industry leading sport for development programme – aimed at children and young people aged between four and 18 – takes tennis into the heart of local communities to those who may never have had the opportunity to play before, or thought the sport wasn't for them.
It’s all about having fun with friends, keeping mentally and physically fit all the while learning new skills beyond the tennis court.
We work with partner organisations who know the communities they work with inside out to select sites, and then recruit and train activators from those communities to deliver fun and informal tennis sessions to their peers in any venue. Some of these include mosques, faith venues, youth clubs, housing estates and community assets. Our model is to provide them with what we call a pop-up court, which is the size of a mini tennis court, along with everything else that is needed.
Hinckley Town Tennis Club: Feel Good Tennis
Hinckley Town Tennis Club is a thriving local sporting venue in Leicestershire which places emphasis on enjoyment and making tennis a sport for everyone. Members of the club work in partnership with well-being practitioners to deliver its LTA Tennis Foundation grant funded programme - Feel Good Tennis. This involves opening tennis up to the wider community, including schools, NHS workers and via social prescribing to provide 90-minute sessions; 45 minutes of tennis and 45 minutes of mindfulness.
Breaking Barriers to Tennis Association
The Breaking Barriers Tennis Association (BBTA) is an organisation that aims to break barriers to and through tennis for children from underrepresented communities. With leadership from underrepresented communities, BBTA aims to break down barriers to: perception, cost, accessibility, weather and barriers through; social, mental and physical benefits through tennis for underrepresented communities.
Their project, funded by a grant from the LTA Tennis Foundation brings children and families from underrepresented communities into established traditional tennis programmes ensuring the kids have as close a tennis experience as and alongside other children from different backgrounds.
The project is about breaking down barriers to fun, good quality, consistent coaching in good tennis facilities. This integrative project fosters social connectedness between traditional and underrepresented communities along the way, levelling and truly opening tennis up.
The impact of Sport for Development - Meet Tanveer
Tanveer is a great example of how sport can be used to change a young person’s life.
Tanveer is a pupil at St Paul’s Way Trust, a school in Tower Hamlets, a London borough that sadly experiences significant pockets of deprivation.
When Tanveer reached Year 9 he decided to join an LTA Tennis Foundation funded project, delivered by Greenhouse Sports that aims to support young people from communities facing poverty to discover the tennis and its many benefits. The project provides regular group tennis sessions as well as mentoring participants, building social skills, problem solving skills and emotional and physical wellbeing.
Tanveer is autistic and struggles with anger management and unfortunately some of his peers were unkind to him when he first started playing. However, he didn’t let it deter him. He trained every day and started to make new friends. After playing together for a while the players became a real support network for each other – on and off the court.
Tennis really helped Tanveer who reaped the social, mental, social and physical benefits. In fact, he got so good at tennis that he went on to represent Tower Hamlets at the London Youth Games. Off court, he is also thriving and currently studying IT and has plans to go to university once he has finished school.
Tom Gibbins, LTA Head of Programme Strategy and Foundation Development said, "We are proud to be a member of the Sport for Development Coalition and to support the #OpenGoal campaign.
"The objectives of the #OpenGoal framework are so closely aligned to our mission of improving lives through tennis and what we do through our grant making programme, our funding of LTA sport for development programmes and facility investments. We're also pleased to see that many of our Charity Network are members of the Coalition too."
