Sports project helps more women to get active

Today the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice, Lesley Griffiths, visited a strength and balance session in Cardiff to see how Sport4All has benefited from Welsh Government funding.

Women Connect First received £210,000 in multi-year funding through the Anti-racist Wales Culture Heritage and Sport Grant Scheme for the Local Sector. This funding aims to support women and girls from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds to participate in active lifestyles; a key action in the Culture, Heritage and Sport section of the Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan.

Women Connect First are helping to deliver these aims by offering free activity sessions through Sports4All, including yoga, swimming and cycling classes. They are aimed at Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women and young girls, who often face extra barriers to participation.

Funding was provided as part of a £4.5m investment in local, national and regional culture, heritage and sport organisations across Wales. This funding was shared between Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Sport Wales, Arts Council of Wales and 22 other organisations, all of which put a focus on lived experience and co-produced their projects with people in their community.

Lesley Griffiths, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice said: “Sport and culture helps bring us together, and I want to make sure everyone can participate and enjoy those activities. Sessions like those delivered by Sports4All can make a real difference to health and wellbeing, and help people get together.”

Menaka Kodur, Interim CEO of Women Connect First, said: “The Sports4All project aims to engage women, young girls and children from diverse backgrounds in sport, and other well-being activities. Seeing the women and their families in Sports4All sessions and hearing their stories of progress, their achievements, shows that with the right support ethnic minority women can overcome the barriers that often stand in the way of them improving their physical and mental health. For some of them the change has been life changing. The Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Culture Heritage and Sport Grant Scheme, together with the support of the project’s partners in the community, has enabled us to provide culturally appropriate sport and fitness sessions for women whatever their situation.”