Sometimes, it is the simplest things that make the biggest difference and this is certainly true of Cardiff Lions RFC’s plans to use a grant from Sport Wales’ Be Active Wales Fund.
The city club provides gay, straight and trans men a safe space to play rugby. It was set up in 2004 and the club sees around 35 players train every week. Since September, 10 new recruits have joined.
The club is based at the ground of the Cardiff Harlequins but it doesn’t currently have any storage space. This means that equipment, first aid kits and now Covid supplies of PPE are bundled into a player’s car to store at home until the next session.
It’s not a bad solution until that player can’t make the next session or, as the club knows only too well, a car breaks down and is towed away – with the equipment in the car boot!
So, Sport Wales has stepped in with a £3,652 grant, awarded from the ‘Progress’ stream of the Be Active Wales Fund which will enable the club to purchase a storage container to house their equipment.
Club Secretary Mark Lewis Evans explains: “It will really improve training. It means that we can set up for training sessions straight away rather than waiting for the player with the equipment to arrive. It also means that we can buy more kit such as tackle bags and tackling shields which the Be Active Wales grant is also helping us with.”
As well as helping to fund the storage container and some extra equipment, the grant is also being invested into coach education so the club can increase its number of Assistant Coaches.
With the club growing and attracting more players, the funding is set to help the club increase its capacity of offering better training, social and match opportunities to those underrepresented groups it exists to support.
The Be Active Wales Fund application process has recently been streamlined so that it is now easier for clubs to apply for the funding they need. Grants are available to protect clubs who are facing severe losses of revenue during the current lockdown period, to help clubs prepare to make their activities Covid secure once restrictions are eased, and to support clubs and organisations with their future plans so that they can offer even better opportunities for the nation to be active beyond the Covid-19 crisis.
