Applications for our third round of Hardship Grant Programme funding will reopen on Tuesday 4th May.

Our gymnastics community is strong, but the effect of the virus continues to affect us all in some way. For some British Gymnastics members, we know that the coronavirus has had a devastating effect on their lives and livelihoods, making a return to gymnastics feel like the impossible.

We are one big gymnastics family, and we want to ensure that nobody in our family drops out of the sport that they love because of significant financial hardship or family crisis caused by the coronavirus; that is why the British Gymnastics Foundation (the partner charity of British Gymnastics), has been working hard to make extra funds available for our British Gymnastics members who are most in need during this crisis.

This, the third round of Covid-19 recovery Hardship Grants will open on 4^th May, so if you are a British Gymnastics member who is struggling financially to afford the costs of staying in the sport, please apply as soon as you can.

Impact of the Hardship Grants Programme
Since the start of the Hardship Grants Programme in March 2015, we have awarded grants totalling £255,922. This has benefitted the lives of 752 individuals. We found that 98% of Hardship Grant recipients are still in the sport 12 months after receiving a grant and 94% of recipients stated that the British Gymnastics Foundation’s Hardship Grant made a hugely positive impact on their life & their family’s life.

What is a hardship grant and when can I apply for one?
The Hardship Grants Programme was initially designed to provide financial assistance to British Gymnastics members to help them continue participating in gymnastics through times of significant financial hardship. Due to the current crisis, we have worked hard to make more funds available for the Hardship Grant Programme, to deliver special rounds of funding that supports British Gymnastics members suffering financially in these difficult times. The grants can be used to help pay for the future costs of participating in gymnastics for individual participants.

Applications can be made through our Hardship Grants Programe page.

Applications will open on 4^th May; and will remain open until midnight on 17^th May.

Who can apply for a Hardship Grant in this special funding round?
The grants are open to current British Gymnastics members who are in significant financial hardship and who are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics as a result of the coronavirus. We are very pleased to announce that within this round of funding, and in addition to our general pot of funding, we have £25,000 available to specifically support disabled British Gymnastics members; and we would like to extend our most sincere thanks to The Peter Harrison Foundation for their most generous grant which has enabled us to support disabled members who are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics for financial reasons.

British Gymnastics Foundation will NOT fund any of the following:

• British Gymnastics members who are deemed to be financially capable of/or have the means to fund their involvement in gymnastics.
• Any person who has made a false claim in the past.
• Gymnasts in receipt of UK Sport Lottery funding.
• British Gymnastics staff members.

It is extremely important that as a gymnastics community, we are all there to support those who are most in need and at risk of dropping out of gymnastics completely. We treat fraudulent claims very seriously and we strongly urge those who have the means to get back to gymnastics, to not apply as doing so may result in charity funds not being available to support someone else who is in desperate need of our help.

> Hardship Grants Criteria

Once you have applied, what happens next?
Throughout May and June, we will be working hard to review all applications for funding; aiming to review all applications and notify each applicant of our award decision by the end of June. We ordinarily run one Hardship Grant Application Panel each quarter, but for this special round of funding, we will run as many Grants Panels as is necessary to review all applications.

There will likely be many more applications than is usual, so please bear with us as we work through this. We will fully consider each individual case and we are committed to ensuring that everyone has the means to get back to gymnastics when it is safe to do so.

Last week, Millie along with thousands of gymnasts across England returned to gymnastics after months away in lockdown.

Millie, who is 16 years-old, has been with Hertfordshire Gymnastics Club (HGC) for over 8 years, and to her, this is her happy place.

During her time with HGC she has competed at national level in both Acrobatic Gymnastics and Tumbling. In 2015, she won silver with her Grade 2 trio in Acro.

Millie lives at home with her sister Rhiannon and her mum, Emma and her partner.

Millie’s father passed away when she and her sister were both very young but Emma has always worked to do everything she can to allow them to fulfil their dreams.

Emma works in a primary school and has recently been promoted but last year, she like many other parents across the UK felt the impact of the pandemic.

“Supporting two teenagers is hard and my wage does not go very far but I try my best to allow the girls to take part in as much as possible.

“Covid-19 had an impact on our household income, as I wasn’t able work the extra hours I would normally work and whilst my partner is a great support, the girls have always been my responsibility financially. I have never expected him to support them.”

As gymnastics clubs were allowed to reopen later in the year, Emma looked for ways to how she could keep Millie in the sport and discovered the British Gymnastics Foundation’s Hardship Grants Programme.

“I found out about the grant from the manager, Nic Munns at HGC and did some research online.

“With Nic’s support, I applied for the grant. The process was easy and everyone along the way has been so lovely and so helpful.

Following a successful application, Millie was to continue training with HGC in the gym and remotely during lockdown through Zoom.

“Millie has been able to continue to train with the help of the Hardship Grant. The grant has helped with fees, travelling to training and kit for training. Without the grant, I would have really struggled to meet the costs. It has enabled her to continue to do what she loves.”

The effects of the pandemic continued into the start of the New Year but now, with the hope of no further lockdowns, Millie, along with many others, will be hoping to make the most of returning.

“Millie is so excited to return and to be back with her friends and coaches at HGC, who are amazing!”

Applications for our next round of Hardship Grants open on Tuesday 4th May and close on Monday 17th May. For applications that are successful, we will be looking to get everyone’s grants paid by the end of June.