mettle secures funding to help local community

mettle, a weightlifting club in Sheffield, has secured tackling inequalities funding to develop and improve the physical activity offer in the local community.

British Weight Lifting is proud to announce that its talent academy mettle has secured funding to support the club’s offer to the local community. mettle, formerly Hallam Barbell Weightlifting Club, has been successful in a funding bid from Sport England to help improve the quality of coaching in the region, and to bring physical activity and weight training to a more diverse audience. Dave Hembrough, head coach at mettle, managed to attain the funding by applying via Street Games (www.streetgames.org), a national physical education charity.

Dave has allocated the funds to two different streams of activity, the first to upskill mettle coaches and others working with young people in Sheffield, and the second programme delivery within the club. 

Upskilling will take place in several ways:

-A sports governance course for Dave (founder and head coach for the club)

-A transformational leadership course. This course has spaces for 30 participants, so will be offered to mettle staff first with remaining spaces going to local sport coaches, youth workers and PE teachers. The half day course will be delivered by world leading expert Jean Côté and will teach participants to map their activity planning around the 5 Cs of coaching: competence, confidence, character, connectedness and caring.

-First aid qualifications for all mettle staff

The delivery programmes supported by the funding at mettle are Olympic Weightlifting, Strength and Fitness, and Girl Strong. These activities are open to children aged 11-16, and recruitment targets local communities with limited access to physical activity. The funding has enabled the introduction of a scholarship and bursary scheme, meaning some places are available for children fully funded, and some are available at half price - these are offered at the club’s discretion. 

Olympic Weightlifting is a club program coached by Roman Bychyk and teaches the technique of Olympic weightlifting, along with strength development, building confidence and offering a fun and social space for attendees. Strength and fitness club, coached by Colin McCurdy, offers children a space to get fit, strong, and make new friends- all while learning how to train safely in a gym environment. Girl Strong, coached by Elicia Agar, is a girls only gym club focussing on strength development, compound movement technique, and building a supportive and confident community within the gym space for young women.

Sport England’s tackling inequalities funding has been extended and is now called the Together Fund. The fund aims to reduce the negative effects of coronavirus and aims to support the following: lower socio-economic groups, culturally diverse communities, disabled people and people with long term health conditions. 

More information on how to apply is available on Sport England’s webpage: https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/together-fund

To find out more about BWL Talent Academy mettle please visit http://www.mettle.zone/