THE BRITISH SKI & SNOWBOARD NATIONAL FOUNDATION PROVIDING ACCESS TO WINTER SPORT IN SCHOOLS

The British Ski and Snowboard National Foundation (BSSNF) is the proud partner charity to GB Snowsport, Home Nations, and the wider Snowsport family, supporting essential and developing pathways into Snowsport to ensure there are opportunities for all to benefit from the exhilarating power of Winter Sport. With the charity focused on supporting those in education to pursue winter dreams, or to get active in a new Snowsport, we feel a real connection for the great work and growing community of the National Schools Snowsports Association.

Inspiring the next generation into winter sports is key and it was awesome to see at the Beijing 2022 Olympics and Paralympics how our support translated into medal-winning performances! We do also understand the need to provide the right opportunities to achieve this and how the pressures on our young community have risen over the global pandemic. Therefore, our programmatic support in this area became the focus to enthuse our young people back into sport in order to promote their health and well-being; encouraging physical activity and building a community of support. Two of these projects that provided the chance for nearly 1200 children to access a brand new sport were; ‘Project Balance’ and ‘Lets Roll’

Let’s Roll

This was a Nordic skiing campaign that was delivered across schools in Scotland to provide the chance for pupils to try roller skiing and laser shooting; igniting

an interest in the sport, having fun and encouraging an active lifestyle. BSSNF Director Elizabeth Winfield attended a session and shared ‘It was fantastic to see how the children embraced a brand new sport, which many had not even heard of before the session! Their attitude and approach was amazing as they rose to the challenge of this unique sport, and by the end of the day they were moving on the roller ski’s and shooting with speed and accuracy. There could be some stars of the future in there, but for us it was just great to see so many children engaged in a new winter sport’.

Project Balance

We were so excited to deliver this grassroots access project launched to target inner-city children and demonstrate the transferable skills and mental grit required to transition from skatepark to snow. Here the children that took part in the initiative and had their first opportunity to hit the snow following a 6 week skatepark programme.

Speaking at the session, Katie Ormerod Team GB Snowboarder and two time Olympian said: “It’s really great to be down here today to see how well these kids are developing their board skills. We’ve all felt the impact of the past 18 months and it’s been really tough for all of us, but young people have had it particularly hard. I’m really pleased that our sport is finding a way to give young people new skills and new experiences after the past year; this is a big year for British Snowsport, but even while we’re focusing on the new season it’s so important that we don’t lose sight of the positive impact we can have on people’s lives here at home.”

Matt McCormick GB Freestyle World Cup Snowboarder is currently balancing his education and following his Olympic dream, he also attended the session and added: “As a group we’re focused on being the best athletes we can be, but all of us started out by just getting into something we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to try and to enjoy. If these kids go on to develop and improve their skills, on skateboards or on snowboards, that’s amazing. But even if not, if they get a new experience out of it, learn something new, or feel inspired to try something else instead then that’s a brilliant outcome.”

The UK Snowsport space continues to be faced with financial challenges at all levels and BSSNF takes seriously our mission to continue to bridge these gaps, providing support in the education, community and professional pathways environment. We have seen first hand how inspiring and impactful these in school programmes have been in shaping the lives of young people. With greater philanthropic support, we aim to expand our reach even further to address the growing need in this area. To find out more about what we do and ways to support projects like these please do visit our website (www.bssnf.uk) or contact Terra@bssnf.uk

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