Families Active, Sporting Together

Cherwell District Council’s ‘Families Active, Sporting together’ (FAST) programme has now started. CSH is very excited to partner in this great 4 year project, funded by the Sports England Family Fund, which will offer families living in areas of deprivation in Banbury the opportunity to take part in facilitated sports activities as a whole family at no costs.

The pilot scheme, which ran throughout the summer 2018, was hugely popular with 535 families signing up for their "FAST card". Overall 282 people took part in some great sporting offers - family swims at heavily reduced prices and facilitated "activator" games sessions in the parks. In the coming Autumn the FAST programme will offer free sporting activities to families living in specific post code areas 7 days a week at the schools, leisure centres and local parks. We are working with local partners including a local housing association, the troubled families department at the County Council, schools and GPs to promote the programme to those who could benefit most. The FAST programme will also welcome several local and national sports teams to run workshops.

The monitoring and evaluation data from this project will contribute to an overall Sports England Evaluation of 30 similar projects across the UK- offering valuable insights into how to get families more sporty. CSH and the Cherwell District Council are grateful to Sports England the Big Lottery Fund, as well as all the players of the lottery in the UK, for making this project possible.