Wapping Kidds Saturday Sessions
The Pitch
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Pitch hire costs | £3,000 |
Beneficiaries
100 people
Who will benefit
Expected impact
We aim to grow our Saturday attendance to 100 children: many continue to play for years, becoming coaches along the way. Tower Hamlets has one of the highest BAME populations in London (75.6%), these individuals are often under-represented in team sports and so we are uniquely placed to improve the diversity of hockey. In targeting the youngest children we instil the importance of a healthy lifestyle, preventing them from becoming obese. This is far more favourable than trying to reverse the physical and psychological challenges of being overweight at an older age. Tower Hamlets is one of the most impoverished London boroughs - providing a free service gives children from disadvantaged backgrounds opportunities they may otherwise be excluded from, and helps them to develop skills like confidence, teamwork and leadership that are transferrable to many other areas of life. It also gives these children a chance to socialise outside of school and meet older children to act as role models.
Track record
We have been running Wapping Kidds since 2016, and have grown it from 6 children to around 180 now, playing across both the 5-11 and 11-16 groups. We have been praised for our work in improving the diversity of hockey: this season we are entering a girl's under-15s team into the league for the first time. Wapping Hockey Club also ran a diversity campaign on social media in 2022 which was recognised by England Hockey. Having such a breadth of backgrounds in our coaching staff provides role models to show children that everyone is welcome and can prosper in sports. Last season one of the Kidds who began playing in the 5-11s group made his debut in Wapping Men's 3s team and was nominated as a "Rising Star" in the England Hockey Awards. We have grown steadily year-on-year, it is a huge shame that the council has removed funding for sports in the area and so we are desperate for funding to be able to continue this growth.