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Inmates at HM Prison Lewes will be able to take part in sports sessions and train to become qualified table tennis coaches this summer, thanks to an innovative Sportivate project run jointly by Brighton Table Tennis Club and Active Sussex.

Prisoners who complete one of the two eight-week courses will be supported to train as ETTA Level 1 coaches. On release, those who qualify will be offered

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Wakeboarder Lily Mcbride, who coached last year's Sportivate Wakeboarding for Girls at Hove Lagoon Watersports, funded by Active Sussex

Sport England has allocated £24m worth of funding to extend its Sportivate programme. 

The scheme, which will run until 2017, has been designed to help 14- to 25-year-olds to get involved in sports by offering discounted and free sessions in sports ranging from judo and tennis to wakeboarding. It is delivered by the network of 49 county sports partnerships, working with local clubs and providers.

It aims to give young people - who currently aren't playing sport in their own time - the chance to find a sport they like. The young people are then helped to find a club or venue where they can keep taking part. Research shows that most of the young people are sticking with sport three months after they've completed the Sportivate course.

New figures published today show almost 190,000 teenagers and young adults have so far benefitted from free or discounted six- to eight-week sport courses through Sportivate. Of these, 156,547 have successfully completed their coaching course, missing no more than one session.

Sport England chief executive Jennie Price, said: "Sportivate's success is built on listening to what young people want from sport and then giving them great opportunities to get involved.

"With dozens of traditional and non-traditional sports on offer, lots of young people are getting active and discovering a sport they really enjoy and want to keep playing."

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Sport England has announced 'favoured' areas for the latest round of its Inspired Facilities fund. In Sussex the areas are: Hastings, Adur, Eastbourne and Mid Sussex.

The latest round of Inspired Facilities is now open for applications and will close on 29 April. Billed as "an easier way to access facilities funding", 70 per cent of the fund is earmarked for community and voluntary organisations – including sports clubs – who can apply for grants worth between £20,000 and £50,000. Local authorities, statutory bodies and education establishments such as schools, can apply for grants between £20,000 and £150,000.

Due to the popularity of the programme, and based on experience from earlier rounds, Sport England has chosen to favour applications from certain areas and sports that have not received significant funds in the first three rounds. These two additional priorities will only come into effect when Sport England is considering a small number of projects on the cusp of being funded.

In Sussex, the four local authority areas to be 'favoured' are Hastings, Adur, Eastborune and Mid Sussex. 

Needless to say, this does not mean that if an application is received from one of these areas that it will automatically be successful. It still has to be a very good project and will be assessed in the same way as all other applications.

Further details on local authority areas yet to submit a successful application can be downloaded here: inspiredfacilities.sportengland.org

Read on and apply

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Competitors warm up at the inaugural Sussex School Games, K2 Crawley, July 2012

School sport in Sussex is set for a boost after Sport England announced additional National Lottery funding for Sainsbury's School Games Festivals.

The Sainsbury's School Games, which is delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, is jointly managed in Sussex by Active Sussex and the local organising committee as the Sussex School Games.

Sadie Mason, chief executive of Active Sussex, said: "We are very pleased to acknowledge the extra investment from Sport England in the Sussex School Games. The Games are a chance for Sussex schools to come together for a day of competition and celebration.

"Building on the incredible debut event in 2012, which saw 1,200 school children take part at K2 Crawley, we are thrilled that this year we will host two events in Sussex – a winter and summer games. Active Sussex is particularly proud that the first of these is being hosted by Lancing College."

The local organising committees for School Games festivals in the South East, which include Sussex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, are each to receive at least £45,000 of Lottery funding from Sport England which will help make their events a real celebration of sport.

In 2012, 14,660 young people took part in Sainsbury's School Games festivals across the South East, inspired by the incredible year of sport that the country witnessed. The events in the South East were made possible by the hard work schools and 1,247 volunteers, most of whom were young people themselves.

Sport England's Director of Community Sport, Mike Diaper, said: "Young people can look forward to an inspirational sporting experience at their local Sainsbury's School Games Festival, thanks to this lottery funding. Last year's events were a huge success - something everyone involved should feel proud of – and they're set to be even better in 2013."

John Steele, Chief Executive Officer at the Youth Sport Trust, said: "The Sainsbury's School Games Festivals offer young people a fantastic opportunity to take part and compete across a range of sports against their peers. The funding for these festivals will help make the events an exciting and inspiring occasion for those taking part."

The Susssex School Games Winter Finals take place on Wednesday 6 March at Lancing College. Special guest is Team GB Olympic hockey star Alex Danson

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Badminton England's Andy Dyke and Adur and Worthing's Tammy Waine

National Governing Bodies of sport made use of a quick-fire format to link with charities, local authorities, schools and FE reps at the Active Sussex Network meet on Tuesday. The event was a chance for Sussex NGB reps to outline their new plans, to be rolled out from April.

Sport England is investing £493m into 46 sports

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Active Sussex has pulled together its key business dates for the coming business year into one document. The corporate calendar, which runs from April 2013 through March 2014, is available as a single PDF to download. Dates and venues will be updated periodically. To download, please click the link below.

Download now

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The Triangle, Burgess Hill will be the venue for the next Active Sussex Network on 12 February, supported by Active Susssex gold tier partners Freedom Leisure and the University of Chichester.

Active Sussex member organisations have been quick to sign up and have ensured this is a sell-out event.

Chris Coleman from Sport England will open the day, reporting on December's Active People Survey results and how Sussex fares against the national picture. Coleman will also present a sketch of the new four-year development plans for national governing bodies of sport, due to kick in from April. Delegates will have an opportunity to discuss how they can work together to make the plans work locally, followed by a networking lunch.

The day will be wrapped up by Sadie Mason, Active Sussex CEO (pictured), who will present Active Sussex's four-year strategic framework, building on the strong post-Olympic spirit within community and grassroots sport.

Active Sussex Network, 12 February, Triangle Burgess Hill. If your organisation is not yet a member of Active Sussex and would like to attend future network sessions, find out how to join here 

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Archery is one of six new activities on offer to disabled teenagers in Brighton and Hove

Disabled teenagers in Brighton and Hove will have more opportunities to get involved in sport after local charity Amaze won £78,761 of National Lottery funding from Sport England's Inclusive Sport Fund.

Amaze works with parents of disabled children in the city. Its leisure incentive 'Compass Card' for young people with significant additional needs, funded by Brighton & Hove City Council, has had a major impact in expanding leisure opportunities amongst a group that has a number of barriers to participation. In addition to discounts and free entry to leisure facilities, the Compass Card provides an expanding list of special needs-friendly classes called Compass Card Activities.

The new funding, which is spread over three years, will help Amaze launch six new Compass Card Activities aimed at 14-19 year olds. Amaze will work with local partners Adventure Unlimited, Brighton & Hove City Council, the Crew Club, Extratime, Freedom Leisure and Sussex Central YMCA to deliver the new activities.

“We’ll be launching a range of exciting new Compass Card Activities for teens: archery, climbing, kayaking, trampolining, a fitness class and a monthly activities club,” said Amaze CEO Rachel Travers. “Keeping fit and maintaining an interest in sport can be difficult for any teenager, but teens with special needs can face additional challenges. Our new activities, together with practical support to help teens access them, will make a real difference.”

Welcoming news of the distribution of Sport England Inclusive Sport Fund funding across the UK, Britain’s greatest Paralympian, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson said: “This funding will go a long way to helping those inspired by the outstanding performances of our Paralympians this summer to get out and try sport for themselves. It’s fantastic to see such a wide range of organisations benefitting – all of them focused on helping more disabled people to discover how much sport has to offer.”

The new Compass Card Activities will start to be introduced in Brighton and Hove from April, with most up and running by the summer. The scheme will be launched at Brighton and Hove's Takepart International Festival of Sport, Preston Park, on 22 June 2013.

Amaze website

TakePart International Festival of Sport

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From April 2013, Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) and charities can make Gift Aid repayment claims electronically, making the process cheaper and more accurate and saving volunteers time and money.

The new service, called Charities Online, is being introduced to reduce form filling and will also be compatible for when CASCs or charities want to make claims under the new Gift Aid Small Donations scheme.

For more information about Charities Online visit the HMRC website page.

For more information about Community Amateur Sports Clubs, contact David Foster at the Sport and Recreation Alliance.

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NBA Miami Heat pro basketball player LeBron James leads a training session for London School of Basketball, an intiative developed by Sport for Social Change Network

As a trustee of Community Action Zone (CAZ), formerly known as Sport Action Zone, I've recently been involved in an exciting social enterprise initiative in South London. Community Action Zone, originally set up by Sport England in

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