Greenhouse Sports Launches New Strategy To Provide Urgent Help To Young Londoners
We are responding to the impact of the Coronavirus challenge by launching a range of new programmes designed to help more kids living in poverty reach their full potential at school and into employment. Our new strategy, Greenhouse Sports 2.0, is being launched with an exciting new offer to enable the charity to reach and help more children through an affordable model for primary schools and by providing a wider range of support.
Coronavirus has exacerbated the challenge for children in poverty, with children in poverty experiencing more mental health issues and lower engagement in schoolwork. With children in poverty already 37% more likely to leave school without any GCSEs, schools closing during Covid-19 has had a detrimental impact.
As a result, through Greenhouse Sports 2.0, we will:
- Start working with children at an earlier age in order to have a bigger impact,
- Reach more young people than ever before,
- Offer a wider range of support so that Greenhouse kids enjoy the same opportunity as better off households
Our new offering uses a unique combination of mentoring and sport to help young people living in poverty reach their full potential, both at school and then into employment. Currently there are 4 million children in the UK living in poverty, and these children’s circumstances are impacted more by Covid-19, with worse mental health outcomes, academic outcomes and employment prospects. Greenhouse Sports works in schools where at least 67% of pupils live in areas of high deprivation.
With key support from the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, we partner with schools to embed full-time coaches who become trusted mentors and inspire the children to aim higher. Sport helps to combat a lack of opportunity for less fortunate children and it has been proven that Greenhouse enhances educational attainment, keeps young people engaged with school, and improves mental health, reducing depression and anxiety and increasing self-esteem.
Béatrice Butsana-Sita, CEO, had this to say on our new strategy: “Greenhouse Sports 2.0 has the same core values as our previous offering, but with the aim of reaching more children and reaching them at a younger age. It is a sad reality that poor and working poor children are less likely to leave school with any qualifications, meaning they will find it harder to get a job. At Greenhouse Sports we want to stop that pattern and enable children in poverty to reach their full potential.”
“Our coaches are full-time figures in these children’s lives before school, at school, and after school, and really do become mentors. Our new offering will mean we can help more children living in poverty and more children can benefit from the magic that is Greenhouse Sports.”
“Our results are proven – on average Greenhouse Sports children outperform their peers by up to a third of a grade in English and 40% of a grade in Maths. We have helped more than 42,000 children since we began and it’s incredible to see these kids develop confidence and trust in themselves and their peers. The skills, bonds and resilience they learn through sport carry forward into the classroom.”
“We’re now rolling that out to more kids and having an impact on more kids’ lives, giving them a better chance of success and achieving their goals.”
To mark the launch, Greenhouse Sports will be holding two free virtual events on November 26th.
The first will feature Lord Sebastian Coe and England Netball star Ama Agbeze. They discuss the importance of sport to the lives of our young people, as well as our new 2021 strategy.
The second will be a virtual roundtable and Q&A for the charity’s corporate sponsors, which will be chaired by Béatrice Butsana-Sita, CEO, and features Heather Small, British singer and former lead singer of the band M People and Lawyer David Nieta. The event will focus on the charity’s aims and ambitions over the coming months, particularly as children living in poverty are facing added challenges to their mental health and wellbeing due to the Covid-19 lockdown, which has restricted their ability to socialise and exercise.