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Jersey Sport to run States of Jersey’s Travel Grants scheme

Jersey Sport, the new body overseeing sports development in the island, is inviting association and club leaders to workshops to outline more about the new process for bidding for support for sport travel.

The Travel Grants scheme backs Jersey’s young sportsmen and women, enabling them to compete in events and training camps at a higher level. Up to £125,000 is available in 2018 as part of the States of Jersey’s commitment to developing athletes and coaches.

Steve Pallett, the Assistant Minister with responsibility for sport, said: “It is vitally important that the States continues to support young people and their coaches to develop and participate at the highest level possible. Funding has been allocated by the department to allow this Travel Grant scheme to continue and I would encourage participants from as wide a range of sports as possible to work with their clubs and associations to bid for support.”

Jersey Sport is about to take over the governance of the programme from the Advisory Council for Sport, with the first round of applications set to open in early December.

The panel, which will use a detailed set of criteria to decide which sports groups are awarded the funding, is made up of Jersey Sport board members Steve Law (chairman of the committee) and Jean Cross (vice chairperson of the committee), along with long-serving Jersey Sports Council representative Bernard Cooper, experienced shooter Steve Le Couilliard and Jersey Sport CEO Catriona McAllister.

“Jersey Sport is pleased to be given the responsibility of overseeing the States of Jersey Travel Grant fund from 1st January 2018,” said Mr Law, chairman of the Travel Grants Advisory Committee.

“Building on the excellent work of the former custodians, the Sports Advisory Council, this is a great opportunity to review the qualification criteria and application process and link more closely to the overall strategic aims and ambitions of Jersey Sport and, at the same time, support sports to achieve higher and more uniform standards of governance. I would encourage all sports to attend the upcoming workshops.”

“I would like to thank all past and present Council members for their contributions, especially to three of the members who have been sitting on the council for over 20 years,” said Mr Le Couilliard.

“Serving on the Council has been very interesting and at times difficult, especially when we have had to say ‘no’ to funding a particular application.

“The new panel has taken two members from the previous Council for a transition period of one year and I am pleased to have been chosen as one of them.”

To help support association and club representatives with their bids, Jersey Sport is currently recruiting for a Sports Partnership Manager. Once appointed, a key part of this high-profile role will be to work closely alongside sports organisations to support them with their governance and applications.

Sports associations and clubs are being invited, via email, to the workshops at the St Paul’s Centre in St Helier. They will be held on these dates:

• Tuesday 5^th of December, 13:30 – 14:30 (associations)
• Tuesday 5^th of December, 18:00 – 19:00 (associations)
• Thursday 7^th December, 12:30 – 13:30 (clubs)
• Thursday 7^th December, 19:00 – 20:00 (clubs)

To register for a session as the representative of your club or association, please go to jerseysport.je/grants and follow the link to our Eventbrite page.