JB's Sports Coaching has been awarded a grant of £4190 from Sport England's Together Fund. The funding, distributed by Active Lincolnshire, will support the development of a new netball fitness project in Horncastle.

The project will give women in the local area the opportunity to get involved in a netball fitness project and enjoy the associated benefits, such as feeling part of a team, building friendships and developing confidence. Weekly sessions will take place every Monday evening on Horncastle all-weather surface.

Horncastle is situated in a very rural location in an area of high deprivation, with limited options and community facilities. JB's Sports Coaching identified that women in Horncastle have fewer opportunities to be active, and feel excluded from participating in community provision, leading to isolation, loneliness, anxiety and poor mental health. The project will aim to support women to cultivate self-esteem, and confidence, improve their fitness, tackle mental ill health and deal with loneliness by offering a sense of belonging. It will bring women with similar interests together, promoting social interaction and giving them a social circle, to build stronger community relationships that they can develop further outside the project, which hopefully will empower and encourage them to engage with other community activities. Lack of childcare opportunities were identified as a barrier to attendance for many women -to help overcome this issue the weekly netball session will run concurrently with children’s football sessions at the location.

As part of the project JB's Coaching will also facilitate coaching qualifications and opportunities for women to support the delivery alongside their existing volunteers, allowing continuation of the sessions beyond the funding period. The project will have the support of England Netball to provide competitive opportunities, signposting enquiries to the sessions and club development.

The project is one of a number of projects across Lincolnshire that Active Lincolnshire have been able to support through Sport England's Together Fund. The fund exists to help to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and support community groups and clubs working with our target audiences - whose activity levels have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic - to grow and enable more people to be more active.

Find out more about the other programmes that the Together Fund is supporting in Lincolnshire here.