MFC Foundation are delighted to be part of the BBC’s Make a Difference Kit Out the Nation Campaign.
It runs for a month, and is aimed at taking in and distributing unwanted, good condition sports kit and getting it to children and teenagers who need it at a time when the pandemic has seen levels of exercise among young people plummet.
Please bring your donations to us at:
MFC Foundation
Herlingshaw Centre
Normanby Road
South Bank
TS6 9AE
Telephone 01642 282128
The centre is open 7 days a week, the best time to drop off any donations would be up from 8.30am to 8pm Monday to Friday, or until 1pm on a Saturday and 2pm on a Sunday.
BBC Radio Tees take up the story and explain why they’re passionate about backing this national campaign….
What is this campaign about?
Kit Out the Nation’ is a month long Make a Difference campaign (Saturday 4th September – 2nd October) aimed at taking in and distributing unwanted, good condition sports kit and getting it to children and teenagers who need it. It will mirror the ‘Give a Laptop’ campaign, working with partners around the country.
Why are we doing this?
We’ve long known of the issue around access to sport and exercise because of the affordability of kit. The situation has been compounded by the pandemic and this is our chance to help to improve that situation.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee published a report on 29th July 2021 where they said data from Sport England showing 100,000 fewer children met the recommended level of activity in 2020 than in 2019 was “of significant concern.”
They called for
- a sporting equivalent of the “Eat Out to Help Out” campaign, entitled “Work Out to Help Out”, to incentivise volunteers and participants to get involved, participate in organised sport and support the sporting infrastructure, both in England and across the UK
• before the end of this year, the government should initiate a nationwide communications campaign, similar to that of the “five a day” campaign, to emphasise the importance of children and young people engaging in at least 60 minutes of moderate activity every day
• the government work with Sport England, UK Sport and the National Lottery to review and revise the current funding models to enable sports organisations to accumulate greater reserves and, as a result, have more of a cushion to support themselves with should another situation like the COVID pandemic occur
• the government should set out the ways in which it intends to encourage schools across the country to make their facilities more available to community and grassroots sports clubs at a fair rate
There are other benefits – it’s recycling on a grand scale. Good condition equipment that would otherwise go to landfill getting an extended life, it benefits the environment.
What experience does the BBC Make a Difference campaign have of this type of campaign?
We have done it before. Our Give a Laptop campaign has now distributed almost 100,000 laptops to schools across England, and donations continue to come in.