Background
Your School Your Club (YSYC) is an initiative to help promote community use of the existing sports provision that is held within the school estate. The main aim is to enhance the current sports provision that will help community groups and sports clubs who require additional facilities to meet their needs within their local community.
Evidence has highlighted that 55% of sports halls in Northern Ireland are located on the school estate, 35% of grass pitches are located on the school estate and 29% of synthetic pitches are located on the school estate (Your School – Your Club. A Practical Guide to Achieving Community Use of School Facilities).
Since the formation of the YSYC in 2017 there have been 37 awards Circa £3.6m to applicants (schools and councils). The purpose of investments through the YSYC initiative is to help enhance the sports provision within the school estate, so that community use will take place outside core school hours.
Investment
Sport Northern Ireland and the Your School Your Club Joint Working Group are seeking to establish a list of potential projects who have the capability of progressing in the 2024/25 financial year.
For the 2024/25 financial year Your School Your Club has a budget of £500,000.
Projects with the potential to be delivered in 2024/25 will be invited to submit additional information and make a formal application to the programme.
What organisations can express an interest?
An Expression of Interest and supporting documentation must be submitted by prospective projects. Those who can make the submission are:
The school where the project is proposed.
OR
The Local Authority in partnership with the school where the project is proposed (this is a potential partnership opportunity and therefore may require legal agreement between the Local Authority and Managing Authority of the school).
Your School Your Club Guidance Note
The Expression of Interest will remain open and will be reviewed periodically by Sport NI.
Sport NI will be using this information on an ongoing basis to determine the need for the sector, and to seek support from government for future funding.
To facilitate project delivery in 2024/25, projects will first be reviewed at 12noon Monday 2nd September 2024.
If you require any clarification regarding the information provided in these guidance notes or advice/guidance concerning the questions within the Expression of Interest, you can contact yourschoolyourclub@sportni.net.
