EMPLOYMENT opportunities are set to be given a boost thanks to National Lottery funding.
Hundreds of young people across the region can get access to new volunteering and employability opportunities as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
This comes after £750,000 was awarded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to Gen22, a legacy project created and run by Birmingham 2022.
A separate £250,000 Sport England investment from the Sport England Lottery Sports Fund is also supporting Gen22.
Gen22 will use this funding to create 1,000 new opportunities for local young people aged 16 to 24 years to gain life skills from games related activities.
This is in addition to a workforce of 50,000, which the Games is expected to create.
This National Lottery funding will give young people, who face barriers such as a lack of confidence, being a young carer or young parent, or having a criminal record, to contribute 30,000 hours of social action towards the Games, thanks to support from Gen22.
Working alongside Gen22, The National Lottery Community Fund will support four ‘flagship providers’ – The Canal and River Trust, Street Games, Groundwork and Positive Youth Foundation – to support young people to design and deliver their own projects.
Sport England will be working with six West Midlands Active Partnerships to focus on sport and physical activity-related youth social action volunteering to deliver the Gen22 ambition.
Bethan Stimpson, Gen22 programme lead at Birmingham 2022, said: “I am delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has chosen to support Gen22 and our mission to bring the games closer to our young regional audience.
“I’m particularly happy to launch our search for social action ideas from young people across the West Midlands and to see these become a reality.
“We hope that National Lottery players will be excited to see the impact they will make to the lives of our participants and their communities, and we’re really grateful for their contribution.”
Deadline for application is April 24.
