Sporting chances for young people

Greenhouse Sports is leading the fight for a future where London’s young people are supported and empowered, whatever their challenges, through sport coaching and mentoring.

The charity work with young people from deprived backgrounds because the crisis in children living in deprivation is real. Greenhouse believes young people given the opportunity to play sport regularly and be mentored by Greenhouse coaches become adults who have confidence, resilience and develop into leaders.

Since 2002, they have worked with over 42,000 children, the majority of which (77%) are children who experience racism.

Children from the poorest families are three times more likely to not participate in any extra-curricular activities compared to those from wealthier families, and they lack many opportunities that are available to their wealthier peers. They are more likely to:

• Leave school with no qualifications
• Be excluded from school
• Get involved in crime and gang violence
• Suffer from mental health issues

These children miss out on the many positive outcomes that are linked to regular exercise, including longer life expectancies, improved mental and physical health, and better grades in school. Just as important, they are denied lessons in discipline, teamwork, and resilience—the very qualities that most parents want for their children—which are often taught in sport. And despite the well-documented advantages of sport participation, there is a striking lack of opportunities for poorer children.

Thanks to vital support from players, Greenhouse is there to make sure these children get the best possible chance to do well in life. Players are helping give 7,500 young people access to coaching and mentoring through sport for a full year.

Greenhouse runs extracurricular breakfast, lunch, and after-school clubs, as well as holiday camps across London, mentoring young people through life’s difficulties. Greenhouse coaches are present in young people’s lives six days of the week, from 7am until 6pm, and are there from Year 7 until children leave school. It is the longevity of coaches’ relationships with the children they coach that is particularly unique – on average lasting four years. Last year, Greenhouse coaches completed over 11,000 hours of one on one and small group mentoring.

Greenhouse's head of coaching, Jason Sugrue, said: "Our activities and mission could not be achieved without players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

"They enable our coaches to be there every day for our children, developing not only their physical ability, but their social and life skills so they are able live up to their potential and access opportunities that they did not have before." 

Players of People's Postcode Lottery have raised over £2.6 million for Greenhouse Sports.