The Paul Casey Foundation is delighted to be working with the Youth Sport Trust (www.youthsporttrust.org) to provide thousands of young people with opportunities to develop skills in a range of sports.

We are working together on 2 specific projects during 2010 throughout South West London and Surrey.

Multi-skill Festivals

Multi-skill Festivals enable children to develop the fundamental movement skills of balance, coordination and agility which underlie healthy development and future sports participation. Festivals also introduce young people to high quality competition and can be used to assess sporting ability. It is vital that children have access to these events as early as possible.

This initiative allows the 50 primary schools identified as having the greatest need in South West London and Surrey with the expert guidance and resources required to enable them to run a Multi-skill Festival later this year.

This exciting project will develop intra-school competition in primary schools across South West London and Surrey and give 50,000 primary school children new opportunities to participate in sports activities and develop their physical skills.

STARS Squads

The Youth Sport Trust's STARS Squad programme supports schools with four or more exceptionally talented young sports people. The programme is designed to enable young athletes to achieve their academic and sporting potential and help their school build a culture of aspiration and success for all its pupils.

STARS Squads receive funding, training, and specialist support and guidance. In addition, Squad members benefit from a series of National Performance Days. These provide an intense period of education/reflection focused on young people’s development and incorporate workshops from Athlete Mentors such as Denise Lewis and Jason Gardner.

There are currently 15 STARS Squads nationwide but none are based in South West London or Surrey. The Paul Casey Foundation will be funding an additional 2 Squads for 2010 - one based at Archbishop Lanfranc School in Croydon, and a second based at The Harris Academy, Merton. This offers new opportunities for top class development support to exceptionally talented young sports people in Paul's home area.