The week beginning 16 November 2009, the Minister for Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, joined Jennie Price and Denise Lewis at the Lilian Baylis School in Lambeth to launch Sport England’s second themed round, Active Women. Through Active Women, Sport England will invest a total of £10 million of Lottery funding in projects that address key barriers to participation in sport amongst two target groups:

Women in disadvantaged communities (the 20% most deprived areas in the country, as defined by the 2007 ‘Indices of Deprivation’) - the challenge amongst this group is to stimulate local demand for sport 

Women caring for children under 16 - the challenge here is to identify and provide appropriate and accessible sporting opportunities and facilities that will meet demand.

Why women?

There are many specific emotional, physiological, cultural and practical barriers to women participating in sport - such as body consciousness, time constraints, childcare, and financial costs. Given this, less than 40% of all women currently take part in sport once a month, and just 13% take part on a regular basis. 

However, over half of all women want to play more sport, and so Sport England are focusing investment on understanding how these barriers can be overcome to make sport fun and accessible for women across the country.
 

Full details of the programme are available on the

funding pages

of the Sport England website.