A charity which supports young people across Coventry has been awarded £200,000 to deliver a year-long project providing free access to healthy activities in the city’s parks and community centres.

Positive Youth Foundation (PYF) has been awarded the funding by grant giving organisation Heart of England Community Foundation through its Inclusive Communities Fund – a legacy fund of the Commonwealth Games.

The Fund was created to serve as a catalyst to address inequalities, forge deeper connections between individuals and organisations, and continue the legacy of the Games. It has been made possible by the UK Government through the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and has been overseen by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

PYF, in partnership with Coventry City Council, will work with 13 partner organisations to deliver activities to young people across Coventry’s 18 wards in parks throughout spring and summer and community centres in autumn and winter.

The organisations, which are rooted in neighbourhoods across the city, will offer an exciting mix of accessible sports activities delivered by skilled coaches and youth workers.

During the summer term, the ‘Go Parks: Active Schools Challenge – Paris 2024 Special’ will also be held to inspire the residents of Coventry to be active and explore the parks and greenspaces across the city.

The project aims to bring young people and communities together and deliver activities which will encourage a more active, healthy lifestyle and improve mental health.

It will build on PYF’s delivery of Go Parks, a physical health and wellbeing initiative which provided 1,255 young people with access to sports including tennis, boxing and football, as well as dance, parkour, skateboarding and bushcraft in 2023.

The Inclusive Communities Fund provides grants to projects with the core themes of physical activity and sport, mental health and wellbeing and arts, culture and creativity, with the missions of bringing people together, improving health and wellbeing, helping the region to grow and putting the region on the map.

More than £817,000 from the fund has been awarded in Coventry so far.