Improving Facilites at Clifton Lane

In September the TCF will open a brand-new Community Hub for young people on the Clifton Lane Sports site, to provide young people in the centre of Rotherham with access to sports activities such as rugby and cricket, throughout the year.  The White Building will also run a youth and social club in the evenings throughout the year. 

During the day it will offer sports and social activities for older residents, such as walking cricket and rugby, as well as courses to support young people and their families to understand food and fitness and how to eat more healthily.

The TCF have provided an extensive range of programmes, promoting rugby, health and fitness for children, since it was formed in 2005. Post Covid the programmes have expanded to include support for young people struggling with their mental health, and projects to promote careers in sports infrastructure, as well as work with NEET and ARNA students across a range of school. We also offer social and health support for older community members, through our walking rugby and cricket programmes, health and fitness advice, alongside social activities linked to these sessions. 

The new Community Hub will enable the TCF to expand all this provision, for children and for the wider community. It will also allow us to offer other community groups a space for their activities such as M.A.T.T. (Men Actually Talking Together) and Disability Sport Yorkshire, who have worked with us previously, based in the Clubhouse at the Rugby Club, for which TCF has had to pay a fee. 

However, the grant from YIF to build the Hub does not include funding for fitting out the building, nor the additional costs we will have to find to staff and run the building and deliver the  projects already planned for September. 

The work already done by TCF is across some of the most disadvantaged wards not just in Rotherham, but in the whole of the UK. The area has an IMB decile of 2 with over 40% of children in Rotherham classified as living in poverty. School surveys have shown that more than 1 in 3 children in Rotherham are classified as overweight or obese, and these are the children who are often prevented from participating in extra-curricular sport because of the costs involved. The new Community Hub will provide a base for both sport focused youth work, but also a centre for expanding provision for all aspects of youth activities as there is no other provision within walking distance of Clifton Lane.