The £5 million pot is part of more than £22m of investment from the National Lottery in schemes across various sectors that'll celebrate Her Majesty's 70 years of service.

Sport England launched a new £5 million fund to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee that aims to use sport and physical activity to bring communities together and tackle inequalities.

Using money from the National Lottery, the fund will make awards of between £300 and £10,000 to community organisations in support of new projects providing opportunities to become more physically active.

The funds could be used for things such as facility hire and coaching costs, or even small capital improvements.

Sport England chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth, is pleased we can honour this landmark year with a fund dedicated to bringing people together through activity.

“As part of the celebrations of an unprecedented anniversary, we’re excited to be able to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a fund designed to help people to come together and get moving,” he said.

“Our Uniting the Movement strategy is focused on tackling inequalities and as such this fund will prioritise supporting projects working with people in disadvantaged communities, where we’ve seen there are traditionally more barriers to being active.

“The fund also highlights the importance of the National Lottery in enabling not just us, but many other organisations too, to support the positive work of people in England.”

The fund is open for applications now and will be make awards to not-for-profit organisations helping inactive people to get active, or less active people to become more active.

We particularly want to hear from projects working with people living in areas of disadvantage, as defined by the Indices of Multiple Deprivation areas 1-3.

We also recognise the pandemic may still be affecting the delivery of projects, either in how they’re delivered or how much they cost to deliver.

Therefore, applicants should make sure to consider any such additional cost or delivery changes to ensure you can achieve their aims.

If you would like some support applying for this funding contact us on foundation@volleballengland.org