New Impact Report published..........
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Chance to Shine has published its Impact Report covering the period from September 2019-March 2021. Despite the interruption of the pandemic, the charity delivered coaching session to 296,857 young people in that period and for the first time gave as many girls as boys the opportunity to play cricket.
The split of 50% boys and girls is the first time that the charity has achieved gender parity, although the figure has been around 49% girls for several years. The closure of schools in March 2019 meant that around 400,000 young people missed out on playing cricket during the last academic year. The charity responded with weekly ‘Cricket at Home’ videos sent to teachers to pass on to pupils at home, which were viewed over 520,000 times and were used by 80% of teachers surveyed.
Since the lifting of Covid-restrictions in August 2020, 80,423 young people have taken part in in-person coaching, with a further 7,478 taking part in sessions in school with a coach delivering to them via a video call. During the January-March 2021 lockdown, the charity ran hugely successful live streamed sessions which saw over 36,000 schools and households join in over 7 weeks.
In-depth analysis of over 8,500 surveys collected since 2016 has also given Chance to Shine greater insight into what works for supporting young people to play cricket. This has shown that the most important factor in children liking cricket is that they like their coach. Other factors like gender, previous experience of cricket and overall interest in sport did not play a role in whether children enjoyed the sessions.
Analysis has also shown that, after receiving coaching in their school from Chance to Shine, teachers see the value in playing cricket and are keen to continue to do so. Chance to Shine sessions have been delivered in a third of all primary schools across England and Wales since 2017, with a further 20% having signed up to use online coaching resources from the Chance to Shine Portal.