BT and Premier League in disability sport partnership
Howard Lake | 28 September 2016 | News
The Premier League and BT have launched a three-year programme that aims to create opportunities and inspire disabled people through sport.
The partnership will provide funding to Premier League clubs to create more opportunities for disabled people across England and Wales.
Premier League clubs which successfully apply for funding will use it to employ a dedicated Disability Officer responsible for co-ordinating the programme and promoting inclusion. Sport will be used to provide a range of opportunities such as volunteering, education, employability, and apprenticeships.
BT Sport Films team will produce and broadcast short films on the individuals and storylines involved in the initiative, raising the profile of the project and clubs’ broader inclusion work to millions of people.
BT Group’s staff are expected to contribute thousands of hours of support through the company’s employee volunteering programme.
Richard Scudamore, Executive Chairman, Premier League, said:
“Premier League clubs already run a wide range of excellent programmes that provide sporting and educational opportunities for disabled people. This innovative new partnership means even more will benefit from our clubs’ expertise and the unique attributes that sport delivers, as well as opportunities across all club community areas, from coaching through to employment”.
Advertisement
Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer, BT Group, added:
“We are thrilled to deepen our long-term partnership with the Premier League and proud that this initiative is another step in BT’s journey towards our goal of generating more than £1 billion for good causes by 2020 through our people, fund-raising, skills and technology.”
Funding will be open to club community organisations in the Premier League during the 2015/16 season and those promoted to the Premier League for the 2016/17 season. It will also be open to any newly promoted club community organisations in 2017/18 and 2018/19. The programme will fund projects on an annual basis and will close to new applications in July 2018.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.