Lord's Taverners double up

More than 23,000 benefiting from charity's cricket programmes

Participation in Lord’s Taverners cricket programmes over the past year has more than doubled – with 92 per cent of all the young people engaged feeling more included as part of the free and inclusive cricket sessions the charity delivers for young people with a disability and from disadvantaged communities across the UK.

The charity’s latest Impact Report evidences the reach and life-changing impact of their work on young people facing the challenges of inequality with the 2022/23 delivery year seeing the youth cricket charity working in more than 200 locations across the UK and empowering more than 23,000 young people with disabilities and from disadvantaged communities to develop the knowledge, skills, capabilities and confidence required to reach their potential.

With support from the ECB and the Berkeley Foundation, the Lord’s Taverners are also now offering their national disability cricket programme, Super 1s, in every county, Scotland and Wales – and been able to take adapted cricket to 400 new special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools with work already underway to deliver in hundreds more.

For the first time since the programme was introduced over 10 years ago, two former Super 1s participants went on to make their England debuts for the national learning disabilities side during their recent tour of South Africa. This made them the first young people with a disability to start their cricket journey on a grassroots disability cricket programme, then go on to represent their national team. 

They also saw a 42 per cent increase in female participation across all their cricket programmes and delivered nearly 400 life skills workshops focusing on topics such as wellbeing, social education, community awareness, promoting positive life choices and employment.

Following all these achievements and a year’s worth of cricket programme delivery, 91 per cent of participants felt more active, 88 per cent felt more confident and 92 per cent felt more included – highlighting just how impactful the charity’s cricket programmes are in empowering young people through the sport.

Every day their work breaks down barriers and gives young people a chance to flourish, creating a safe and inclusive environment where they belong, but there is much more the charity still wants to do to continue enhancing the impact of their work.

“Our programmes are inclusive and safe environments for young people from all backgrounds to participate in cricket and feel like they belong. As illustrated in the report, our participants and their families are telling us how important our work through cricket is and what a positive impact we are having in communities across the UK,” explained Lord’s Taverners CEO Mark Curtin.

“There is so much incredible work being done as a charity in conjunction with county boards, foundations and development officers across the country to ensure we’re making the game as accessible as possible while empowering young people facing the challenges of inequality to fulfill their potential. But we know we can do more to better define, capture and tell the story of our work and the positive impact it has on participants.

“As such, over the next 12 months, we will be working with industry leaders Trust Impact to continue developing how we measure our impact and develop our pathway of change framework – allowing us to more robustly demonstrate the return on investment we deliver and the leading role that we play in empowering young people through cricket.”

Super 1s employability focus 

One of the key aims for national disability cricket programme, Super 1s, is to provide participants with the key life skills, experiences and confidence required to prepare them for the working world.

Super 1s now delivers a three-stage employability offering that best meets the needs of participants. This includes CV and personal statement writing workshops, mock interview days and the final stage, which is the opportunity to work on matchdays/activity days within the counties where they attend Super 1s sessions. These work experience roles can include spectator support, hospitality work and media support. 

As well as providing an opportunity for participants to develop key life skills that help them fulfil their potential, this also provides a great chance for organisations providing the work experience to promote inclusion and diversity internally, which is vital in reducing the stigma around disabled people within the workplace and reducing the inequalities they experience.

So far, 47 participants across six counties have received work experience opportunities through their respective county cricket clubs, with more set to benefit in the coming years.

£2m government funding boost for the Lord’s Taverners work in SEND schools

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a £35m investment into grassroots cricket facilities and widening access to the sport within state schools, with £2m going towards the charity’s continued growth of their disability cricket offer across the country.

This significant investment includes funding for the Lord’s Taverners over the next four years which will allow the charity to extend their already growing work in disability cricket and SEND schools.

Following the introduction of cricket in SEND schools at the start of the last academic year thanks to additional funding from the ECB, nearly 600 SEND schools and just over 19,000 young people with a disability through cricket were reached through the sport.

This will ensure that more young people with a disability than ever before will be provided with a safe space to play a sport with their peers that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. 

Read the Lord’s Taverners Impact Report to find out more – impact.lordstaverners.org

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