Project aim
Spring into Tennis is an inclusive project for young people with learning disabilities to receive expert Tennis Coaching and to socialise
About the project
Spring into Tennis is an inclusive project which engages with young people with and without disabilities, and young carers. It helps to develop young people's learning, personal and social skills by providing them with a structured programme that they can all contribute to; learning new skills, encouraging independent thinking, involvement and ownership. Young people all live in rural locations where there is not much going on and the project provides them with confidence and experience of developing their tennis skills with their peers.
The project was launched in 2014 as an 8-week sports project but the group enjoyed it so much that they wanted to continue playing. We were successful in gaining some funding from the local authority and young people agreed to an increase in their fees in order to continue the sessions.
Due to the group having learning disabilities, we provide an extra support staff alongside the professional tennis coach in order that everybody can particpate, but this of course puts the cost of the sessions up.
The young people currently pay £5 per week to play tennis for 1.5 hours (it normally costs £9). We have some funding thanks to somebody sponsoring the court fees and the expected income from the young people, however we are still need to raise funds to keep it going long term.
If we do not raise the funds, we will have to stop the sessions. The group really want to continue playing as it's become an important part of their social life. One young person said that if tennis wasn't on, they'd "have no social life"
Please help us to keep this fantastic group going - thank you for reading