Supporting Young People During the Cost-of-Living Crisis

South Shields Cricket Club has recently welcomed a large influx of young people, largely due to recent successful campaigns aimed at getting primary aged children active, especially girls, those from disadvantaged backgrounds and ethnic minorities. Grant funding from a variety of sources has been integral to this, as has the work to build strong relationships with local primary schools.

During 2023, and in specific response to the current cost-of-living crisis, the club secured more funding to sustain engagement and for the first time ran 28 days of summer camps. Free to all primary aged children, the camps ran in partnership with Westoe Rugby Club, Westoe Squash and Westoe Tennis clubs. They introduced children to a range of sports and team games, and provided free healthy lunches.

The club were keen to maximise attendance at the summer camps by children from disadvantaged backgrounds and to make camps fully inclusive and representative of the community. Primary schools with over half of children eligible for free school meals were targeted and schools were asked to prioritise children from disadvantaged backgrounds who would most benefit from the programmes.

South Shields Cricket Club Summer Camps 2023

Patrick William-Powlett, Chairman of South Shields Cricket Club explains:

“We have been delighted and humbled by the success of our programmes. Over 130 children engaged with our free holiday camp programme over the summer, with the vast majority attending regularly. Feedback from the camps was universally positive, with all parents surveyed reporting significantly positive or positive benefits to their child physically, mentally and socially. Many working parents reported the how the free childcare provided allowed them to work during the summer.

“It is pleasing to see so many young people who would never have had access to cricket now so engaged with the game. We have over a 100 attending our winter training programme from January, significant numbers of these have come through these programmes. I would like to thank all our funders and volunteers for their support. We hope to sustain these progammes long term and we would welcome hearing from any local companies, particularly Pledge organisations who would like to sponsor or support us to get in touch.”

Cllr Paul Dean, Lead Member for Voluntary Sector, Partnerships and Equalities, said:

“We are delighted that South Shields Cricket Club have signed the South Tyneside Pledge. The positive impact the Club has in our community, particularly for young people is clear to see and we hope that they can use the Pledge network to gain further funding and continue this great work.”

South Shields Cricket Club has been established in the borough since 1850. It fields four senior teams and the club’s thriving junior section fields teams at various age levels with many juniors also playing for senior teams from the age of thirteen onwards.

Fore more information about South Shields Cricket Club visit: https://southshields.play-cricket.com/Teams/64258