Any funding available?

[Julian]

Our club has 20 - 25 juniors, but no one qualified to give them tips and advice. I have heard that funds may be available for someone to be trained as a coach (or maybe hire a coach).
I have e-mailed the Badminton Development Officer for Lincolnshire Badminton Association but got no reply. Can anyone help?

[willis]

Hello Julian
Your club should try to obtain a lottery grant.This has been done by a several junior clubs in Herts and this money which was awarded helped them buy equipment and employ me as the clubs quilified coach.

[Ron]

Hello Julian,

The Email address for lottery funding suggested by stephen Willis is www.awardsforall.org.uk or phone 01483 462 943

You can apply for funding to from £500 to £5K which if you start now you could receive your award by September. It is very easy so give it a go. I have received had two such grants to support our junior club.

[rachyuk]

Do you think that funding would apply to our club? We might have to purchase a large hall curtain to block out the bright lighting conditions?

We are lucky if there are no activities booked on the opposite side of the hall to us. But, if there is netball or rugby practice, then we have to suffer with too much light flooding our side of the hall. Everyone has complained and people hate playing there, but all we have dividing the hall is a net/fabric curtain, which may divide beatufully, but it affects our performance in matches and tournaments. There is no home team advantage if we have to cope with all the lights on in the hall.

SO, a full dividing curtain is the only solution for the club! We've moved venues already once this season!! Would there be a grant to help with purchasing one?

[Ron]

Hi Rachel,

I understand the frustration of having to play a match while there is another sport being played next to you that you can both see and hear. I’m not sure if the grant funding available from awardsforall would cover replacing the net curtain. I would suggest you contact them and ask for an application form or check the web site which should give you details of exactly what they will provide funding for. In the mean time you should continue to complain (perhaps in writing) to the centre to provide adequate facilities also if you know of a suitable curtain you could recommend this to the centre. Goodluck.

[rachyuk]

Ron,
Thanks for the info. We have heard from the centre (which is Army owned and run) that they are looking for a curtain from another of their centres. Hopefully, we'll get a result from that!

if not, Illl try the funding route. Thanks!!

[Michael Banks]

Is there anyone with specific examples where they have won funding for badminton through a lottery grant or other funding?

[Grover]

Did anyone have any examples of clubs getting funding or is it quite rare to get any funds?

[hilly1285]

Hiya all,
The club that i play for (Marske BC) has applied for numerous lottery bids and as far as i am award has never been turned down. Our club started with 6 junior members about 3 years ago and with the help of thousands of pounds of lottery money we now have well over 80 junior members (from 6 - 18 years old).

The money has been used to pay senior coaches to come and take lessons, aswell has train up another 15 coaches at various levels. We have been given free equipment including rackets, coaching bags, training/playing shirt etc.

The original 6 members (one being myself) formed a full junior league team in the first year of the club forming, and now the club has 3 junior mens teams, 2 junior womens teams and 2 mixed junior teams all playing full league badminton.

This is certainly one of the success stories of junior badminton in the UK, and im sure that many other clubs can follow in Marske's footsteps. Details of the club can be found at http://www.marskebc.co.uk (currently under maintenance)

[Phil McBride]

The club that I started at obtained some kind of European grant, so you are not just limited to lottery money. The grant paid for rackets, shuttles hall lets and coaches.

The club is still going after 10 years.

Sorry but I have no specific info on the grant and how they can be obtained.