The Personal Best Foundation is thrilled to announce the launch of a new community athletics pilot programme for 5-11 year olds in Birmingham - delivered in collaboration with local organisation Street Futures and made possible through a generous £5,000 grant from the Zurich Community Trust.
Street Futures, a grassroots community sports organisation, supports underserved young people across inner-city Birmingham. As the new local delivery partner for the Foundation, their involvement ensures that the programme is both rooted in the community and led by trusted local voices.
Over the next eight weeks, the pilot will be delivered in Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East - Birmingham, where 58% of children live in poverty and over 90% of residents come from ethnically diverse communities. In an area facing some of the country’s starkest inequalities, the programme aims to break down barriers to physical activity that many young people face.
The pilot will run free weekly funetics sessions, a fun and inclusive athletics programme developed by England Athletics focused on developing fundamental movement skills through running, jumping, and throwing. These sessions will be held across three community venues:
- Concorde Youth Centre
- St Paul's Children's Centre
- Clifton Primary School
A key part of this pilot’s legacy is sustainability. As part of the launch, 13 local coaches and leaders have been trained as funetics Activators across the three venues. These individuals, many of whom reflect the communities they serve will now also embed funetics into their sites' Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programmes over the summer, providing opportunities for continued participation beyond the pilot period.
Amy Weaver-Tyler, Foundation Manager at the Personal Best Foundation.
“This programme is about creating access where there hasn’t been any. With Street Futures, we’re not only delivering inclusive, community-led athletics, but we’re equipping local leaders to carry the impact forward. We’re incredibly grateful to the Zurich Community Trust for enabling this vital work to begin.”
Usman Khan, Street Futures added:
“Partnering with the Personal Best Foundation means we can deliver more than just sport, we’re delivering belonging, purpose, and progress for young people who too often get left behind.”
This pilot programme comes at a time when over 100,000 children in Birmingham are living in poverty, the second highest rate across UK cities. For many families, the cost of out-of-school activities is simply unaffordable. This contributes to stark inequalities in physical activity levels: only 46% of children from lower-income households take part in sport, compared to 66% of those from higher-income backgrounds.
The Personal Best Foundation believes that everyone has a personal best, and through athletics, every child should have the opportunity to achieve theirs - regardless of their background or postcode.