Date: Saturday 20th June 2020 - Monday 31st August 2020 at Whittlesford
Hardship Grants funding available for British Gymnastics members
Earlier this week, we said we would provide you with information regarding opportunities to apply for Hardship Grants funding. We understand that for some British Gymnastics members, making a return to gymnastics may feel impossible due to the impact that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had, but we want to do our bit to ensure all those who want to take part in gymnastics, can.
As part of our Step Forward Plan, we have been working closely with our partner charity, the British Gymnastics Foundation, to make extra funding available for our members who are most in need during this crisis. Our aim is to ensure that nobody within our gymnastics family drops out of the sport they love because of significant financial hardship.
We would like to actively encourage you to share this with your gymnasts, parents and club members, to ensure that they are aware of what is available at this time. We will be communicating this with members who have opted in to 'News, promotions and exclusive member benefits' next Friday (26th June), but encourage you to share within your community prior to this.
What is a Hardship Grant, and when do applications open?
The Hardship Grants Programme is an initiative from the British Gymnastics Foundation and was initially designed to provide financial assistance to British Gymnastics members to help them continue participating in gymnastics through times of significant financial hardship. The British Gymnastics Foundation has been running the programme for over five years now and has helped over 300 individual British Gymnastics members through the fund.
Due to the current crisis, we have been working hard alongside the Foundation to make more funds available, enabling us to deliver a special round of funding which supports British Gymnastics members suffering financially in these difficult times. The grants can be used to help pay for the costs of participating in gymnastics for individual participants.
Applications will open on 1st July, remaining open throughout July and August.
Apply through the British Gymnastics Foundation website
Who can apply for a Hardship Grant?
In this special funding round the grants are open to current British Gymnastics members who are in significant financial hardship and are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics as a result of COVID-19.
Funding will not be awarded to any of the following:
- British Gymnastics members who are deemed to be financially capable of/or have the means to fund their involvement in gymnastics.
- Any person who has made a false claim in the past.
- Gymnasts in receipt of UK Sport Lottery funding.
- British Gymnastics staff members.
It is extremely important that you know we are here to support those most in need and are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics completely. We will treat fraudulent claims very seriously and we strongly urge those who have the means to get back to gymnastics, to not apply. Doing so may result in charity funds not being available to support someone else who is in desperate need of our help.
Once someone has applied, what happens next?
Throughout July, August and September, alongside the Foundation, we will be working hard to review all applications for funding. We aim to review all applications and notify each applicant of our award decision within a month of receiving their completed application. We ordinarily run one Hardship Grant Application Panel each quarter, but for this special round of funding, we will run as many 'Grants Panels' as is necessary to review all applications. There will likely be many more applications than usual, so please bear with us as we work through this. We will fully consider each individual case and we are committed to ensuring that everyone has the means to get back to gymnastics when it is safe to do so.
> Got a question?
If you have any questions about our Step Forward Plan, Hardship Grants funding or any of the resources that we have created, please contact our Customer Support Team - customersupport@british-gymnastics.org
If you are a Club Manager and you have a business specific query, please contact our Business Supoort Team - business-support@british-gymnastics.org