Women and girls can look forward to a host of sporting opportunities around Canada Water and Rotherhithe thanks to a £200,000 funding package.
Canada Water Dockside developers Art-Invest and Decathlon UK have announced funding for activities including boxing, rowing, football and cricket – with many aimed at getting girls involved.
In Southwark, just 28.8 per cent of women and girls play sport for at least 30 minutes each week compared to 40.2 per cent of males.
Luka Vukotic, partner at Art-Invest Real Estate, said: “There was a clear demand this year for help in engaging women and girls in physical activity, and we hope with the range of programmes we are supporting this year that we can offer positive momentum in encouraging better female participation in the local area.”
The fund was first announced in 2022 and the money will help support the selected organisations this year.
Each year, the fund is opened to new applicants although old recipients can reapply.
Activities receiving funding include football sessions at Millwall Community Trust, with a specific focus on girls-only sessions.
Southwark Park Cricket will provide weekly training sessions for females and buy new equipment with their funding.
London Youth Rowing Club will continue to encourage young people to take up the oars while Roosters Boxing Club will offer weekly training to children and women in Rotherhithe.
Finally, the fund will support more weekly tennis coaching sessions at Southwark Park’s Youth Tennis Club and The Docklands Settlements Community Centre is getting a new £10,000 5-a-side astroturf pitch.
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Delphine Mazillier, Decathlon UK Corporate Social Responsibility Leader, said: “I am so proud to be entering into our second year of working with Art-Invest to support six wonderful charities in and around Southwark. I can’t wait to see the impact that this funding will have, as we endeavour to bring sport into the lives of a number of underrepresented groups.”
Art-Invest’s Canada Water Dockside scheme includes a huge new office and retail development by Canada Water Dock in Rotherhithe.
Canada Water Dockside would be the “front gate” to the raft of new developments in the area, most prominently British Land’s Canada Water masterplan, according to the plans.
It will see 24-storey and ten-storey buildings put up directly to the east of the dock, with a thirteen-storey building behind them.
£200,000 fund ‘to support healthy lifestyles’ in Rotherhithe
