Shooting for the stars

The power of sport is being used to help transform the lives of young people in London, thanks to the work of a charity supported by players of People's Postcode Lottery.

Greenhouse Sports has announced it's teaming up with London Lions, the UK's premier professional basketball team, to support young people in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the city to develop new skills and help build community engagement.

Primary and secondary school pupils will benefit, and the partnership also hopes to encourage more girls to get involved in the sport and offer promising young athletes access to elite-level training, as well as fostering a fresh era of youth basketball development.

Greenhouse Sports has been supported by players of People's Postcode Lottery since 2017.

Every year, it works with more than 8,000 young people, through dedicated full-time school coaches in areas of high deprivation. To date, Postcode Lottery players have raised over £4.1 Million to help the charity deliver its sports programmes.

Chris Allbut, Greenhouse Sports Director of Programmes, said: "We are thrilled to be working with the London Lions to bring the initiatives of this partnership to life. This project epitomises the core mission of Greenhouse Sports, which is to empower young people through sports and provide them with clear pathways to success."

With 22 years of experience in delivering inspirational coaching and mentoring in schools, Greenhouse Sports basketball division alone boasts a team of 40 full-time, qualified basketball coaches and stands as one of the largest independent youth basketball programmes in the UK.

Vanja Cernivec, general manager of the London Lions women's team, said: "We believe sport has the power to be at the forefront of tackling youth inactivity and promoting physical and mental health benefits. Moreover, we believe this partnership has tremendous potential to help improve outcomes for children in some of the most deprived areas across London and we're delighted to be collaborating with Greenhouse Sports on this."