Since its inception in 1991, John Lyon’s Charity has had a mission to ensure all children and young people across the Beneficial Area experience the same opportunities as any other young person. Over the years, the Charity’s most popular Fund has been the Open Programme, which can provide funding towards core costs, salary costs or direct project funding. It is this Fund where the Charity often sees the biggest impact and achievements within its community and a fantastic example of this is the organisation, Future Stars.
Founded in 2005, Future Stars was originally the charitable arm of London United Basketball Club. Now based at Northolt High School in Ealing, Future Stars uses sports to support young people, who are predominantly from disadvantaged backgrounds, to realise their potential. Participation in elite level sport often requires sacrifices on behalf of the individual but also their family in both time and money. But what if you have the talent and potential to be a future star but lack the support and resources to make it happen? Many of Future Stars’ young people either do not have GCSEs on entry, or else have grades too low to progress into Further Education. Future Stars’ offer ranges, from grassroots participatory initiatives to elite level performance pathways that provides talented young athletes with the training, exposure, access and support they need to progress into further education, scholarships, prestigious sports teams (including Team GB) and even international leagues. It makes participation at an elite level accessible to all, not only those that can afford it. Since 2017, Future Stars has received grants totalling £243,000 from John Lyon’s Charity, which have predominately supported its Elite Performance Pathway initiative.
Emma Chambers, Director of Future Stars has been with the sports charity since 2011 and shaped the Elite Performance Pathway initiative into what it is today. Emma’s mission behind this initiative was to identify young individuals who demonstrate potential athletic talent but have not had access to the methods or resources to nurture this talent due to their socioeconomic background. Emma runs the initiative in its entirety, as well as managing relationships with professional sports clubs, overseeing young people’s development and, crucially, providing the combination of pastoral and educational support that all the participants need to succeed – all whilst completing her PhD, which will provide an academically robust evidence base for Future Stars’ work.
Emma Chambers, Director of Future Stars said: “This programme was designed to be the first of its kind in the UK, to not only take a dual integrated and fully comprehensive approach to athletic and academic development, but also to target this opportunity to those young individuals from a predominantly disadvantaged background. The programme identifies young aspiring people with raw talent and nurtures both their sporting and educational performance to provide opportunities and pathways not available to them. We aim to not only dramatically elevate these young people’s life chances to succeed against the odds, but also to create future stars.”
In 2022, a total of 226 young people aged between 14-19 benefited from the project, with achievements including five students awarded full athletic scholarships to reputable basketball programmes in the USA, three basketball athletes making National Team squad selections, and six volleyball athletes selected for the National Team. The volleyball team achieved second place in the U18 National Championships and seven volleyball athletes played for the professional team IBB Polonia in the Super League (the top professional league in the country).
Emma continues: “A major achievement of the programme is the progression routes that we have been able to offer the young people graduating from the programme. We are extremely proud that all individuals that graduated in July 2022 achieved above their target grades for their academic qualifications. This is a real accomplishment of the programme because on enrolment, the majority of this cohort did not have the GCSE grades to enable them to access Level 3 qualifications. However, due to the extensive support provided through this programme, not only did these students achieve the qualification, they exceeded their target grades.”
John Lyon’s Charity prides itself on taking calculated risks in funding organisations that require us to trust in and believe in a project as much as the people delivering the work. Emma’s rationale, passion and drive is hard to ignore, and it has been fantastic to see the successes for the young people that have come since the Charity’s initial grant back in 2017. “Due to the successful funding from John Lyon’s Charity, the programme was launched in May 2018 and has been successfully running since. These successes are real achievements for us and the young people, and it shows the success of what we can do for the programme. It’s concerning that there is a real lack of opportunity or lack of willingness to take a risk on these young people and give them extra sorts of provision simply because it costs. We are trying to prove that it is worth investing in and proving that there are really good progression rates for these young people. Without the investment from an organisation like John Lyon’s Charity it would never get off the ground because there isn’t that willingness to risk that investment.”
John Lyon’s Charity is delighted to have recognised the potential of Future Stars’ Elite Performance Pathway initiative and invested in not only the young people, but trusted in the ambition, skill and vision of both the staff and the charity itself.