Chance to Shine celebrates 15th birthday as five millionth child receives coaching
"The fact that a third of children in primary state schools take part in Chance to Shine now is absolutely heart-warming for us"
Saturday 23 May 2020 15:50, UK
Introducing girls to cricket and helping them to carry on playing has been one of Chance to Shine's proudest achievements, says chief executive Laura Cordingley.
The charity, which aims to give children and young people in state schools and disadvantaged communities the opportunity to play cricket, celebrates its 15th birthday on Saturday.
In that time it has delivered coaching to five million participants and Cordingley told The Cricket Show that, despite the financial problems posed by the coronavirus pandemic, Chance to Shine will continue to have a positive impact through its' digital programmes.
"Equality of participation was right at the forefront when Chance to Shine was started," she said in an interview that you can hear in full by clicking on our podcast above.
"[ECB managing director of women's cricket] Clare Connor said a couple of years ago that Chance to Shine has been part of normalising cricket for girls and that's something that we're hugely proud of.
"The fact that a third of children in primary state schools take part in Chance to Shine now is absolutely heart-warming for us.
"The more that we can do to help young people to develop and to stay in the game; a big part of that has been our partnership with ECB.
"All Stars has been brilliant in helping over the last couple of years and we've seen some really encouraging statistics about children who are starting their journey at Chance to Shine and then going on with All Stars within clubs or going into the street sessions."
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, when recreational cricket was suspended and school places were prioritised for children of key workers, the charity has focussed on delivering its programmes through its online portal.
Around 14,000 teachers are able to access new content on a weekly basis specifically designed to help develop skills through fun activities, some of which promote maths, English and geography.
"Thousands of charities are struggling right now," reflected Cordingley. "We're forecasting a £1 million deficit this year just because we can't fundraise how we would normally.
"We're doing everything we can to counteract that. We've also got some amazing partners - the ECB, Sport England, NatWest and Yorkshire Tea, who have been phenomenal in standing by us and maintaining our funding through this tricky time. We've also got some brilliant, loyal supporters.
"Looking forward to the future, is it going to be challenging? Absolutely and I think one of the hardest bits for us is having that confidence about trying to predict what the new world is going to look like.
"Right now we don't know when we can safely deliver back in schools and we don't know when we can review fundraising activity as we would have done previously.
"What I would say is that we're really trying to work on how we could do things differently - and part of that has been engaging schools digitally.
"We've got a strong relationship with 14,000 teachers and we've worked in over 16,000 schools over the last 15 years and that's a really strong base for us to start from."
To find out more about Chance to Shine and the work the charity does, simply visit www.chancetoshine.org
