The special visit formed part of the  celebration of the one year anniversary of The Supporters Club, BT Sport’s charitable initiative that aims to build a better world by bringing people together through sport. In its first year, £2.5m has been raised from BT Sport customers and BT, with 13 projects in the UK and overseas supported.

Sported has been selected by The Supporters Club for substantial backing. Sported will use the funds from The Supporters Club to work with ten selected Sport for Development projects, with Cast North West becoming the first member to be chosen to receive funding.

Cast North West is an innovative project which uses indoor angling as a tool to engage young people who are NEET or at risk of dropping out of school.  Founder, Neil Farnworth, has already been working with a Sported volunteer business mentor to develop sustainable business plans for the project, but now thanks to funding from The Supporters Club and Sported, Cast North West will be able to extend its summer ‘Angling for a Future’ programme to deliver it all year round.

‘Angling for a Future’ delivers a holistic programme which uses angling as a tool to enhance the employability and educational opportunities of young people that are NEET or at risk of being NEET. The programme offers teaching in an informal and practical educational setting and has a low ratio of young people to coaches, enabling personal one-to-one mentoring and support. In addition, it also includes a vocational element which will enable young people to gain accredited qualifications and skills in specific areas of fish management and work placement. Through the practical nature of the project young people will develop teamwork, communication, time management skills, as well as improving their discipline, patience, behaviour and responsibility.