When the Volleyball England Foundation was formed, one of the key things it wanted to do was to ensure that Volleyball secured a share of any funding opportunity that came along.

To start the Foundation posted a wide range of funding streams that were there to support clubs in many different ways, support for young people, people with disabilities, clubs with BAME players or players from low socio economic backgrounds. There are over 100 different funding streams on the Grant Finder page, have a look.

When Sport England launched the Return to Play funding it seemed like the perfect opportunity to secure funding for as many clubs as possible to ensure they could have a safe return to court. Sport England makes awards, using National Lottery and government funding, of between £300 and £10,000, from a total pot of £15m, to help sport and activity groups, clubs and organisations respond to the immediate challenges of returning to play in a coronavirus-safe way.

The Foundations first application was to support the sitting volleyball community secure funding for nets and PPE equipment to ensure when they returned to play inside they had all they needed to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. The application was successful and 15 clubs all received nets and cleaning equipment ready to ‘Return to play’ last week.

The next 2 application were to support clubs in the South West, they were looking for equipment to help reduce the spread of the infection, support with extra facility hire, a contribution towards training of volunteers to ensure safeguarding was at the forefront of their sessions and addition equipment to ensure the players had all they needed to train in their allocated bubbles. Both clubs were successful and both secured just under £3k each.

We then supported East Midlands Volleyball Association to submit an application to provide each of the 16 clubs playing in the East Midlands league, with a COVID prevention kit bag and nets to allow clubs to get more players taking part in outdoor activities. Another successful application bring in £9,500 in to East Midlands clubs.

A request then came from the West Midlands from 2 clubs who focus on developing junior players. The requests was for additional balls and outdoor net systems to ensure players could work in the bubbles as outline in the VE guidance. A grant for over £5000 was approved.

The latest successful application was for Hull and East Riding Volleyball Association. The application was to support 5 clubs that play in the HEYVA leagues. The application for £9800 was to provide PPE equipment, additional balls and outdoor net systems, electronic whistles and an outdoor waterproof score pad.

Wayne Barber Chair of HEYVA said “HEYVA are delighted to have been awarded Sport England Return to Play funding as this will ensure all our clubs will have the facility to maximise the opportunities to access Volleyball as we come out of the COVID pandemic.

It really can’t be underestimated how much this will benefit the sport of volleyball in the Hull and East Yorkshire area and we would like to thank the Volleyball England Foundation for the help and support offered to us through this process.”

This latest application bring the number of clubs supported by the Foundation to over 40 and the funding secured is over £40,000.

If your club is thinking about applying there is only 4 weeks left on the current programme, if you need help drop us an email to foundation@volleyballengland.org