Sporting New Skills

People's Postcode Lottery Ambassador Fiona Phillips visited Harris Academy in Peckham to look into the amazing work of charity Greenhouse Sports.

Greenhouse Sports works to improve the confidence and life-skills of disadvantaged young people and provide a positive impact on their attendance and performance at school. To date, our players have raised over £1.7 Million for the charity.

Fiona watched pupils from Harris Academy take part in one of their frequent basketball sessions, led by head coach, Jago Streete-Campbell - even taking part in training herself!

The students told Fiona that being active and involved in sport had boosted their confidence and encouraged them to work hard and stay out of trouble.

Confidence Boosting

The work of charities such as Greenhouse Sports is seen as vital at a time when there is intense public concern about the potentially devastating impact of violence and crime on young people in London.

Greenhouse Sports uses mentoring as well as sports coaching to engage young people and improve their life chances. It builds partnerships with schools to provide opportunities to those who may be disengaged, vulnerable or facing disadvantage to develop their social, thinking, emotional, and physical skills.

Fiona said, "The work that Greenhouse Sports coaches like Jago do in schools around London makes a huge difference to young people's lives. I saw first-hand how much fun the kids had playing basketball, but also how participating in sports helps them spend their time after school productively. It's fantastic that support from players of People's Postcode Lottery is helping fund these important school programmes."

John Herriman, Chief Executive at Greenhouse Sports said, "The long-term support from players of People's Postcode Lottery over the last four years has been invaluable to Greenhouse Sports and our coaches. Their deep commitment has had a transformative effect on the charity and the lives of the young people we work with. Fiona got to experience this first-hand and could see how young people can achieve amazing things when they are given great opportunities."

John added, "Our ethos is the provision of high-quality, intensive coaching and this support has not only allowed our coaches to grow their programmes in schools, involving and mentoring more young people, but also to start programmes in new schools like Jago's which began this year at Harris Academy in Peckham. We are enormously grateful to the players of People's Postcode Lottery - they really are making a difference to the lives of many young Londoners."