Funding for groups, schools and communities
We know that some people find it hard to afford to get to Lee Valley Regional Park or pay for activities, so we have created two programmes to remove these barriers where we can.
The Community Access Fund and Active Communities Grant Scheme gives financial support to community and school groups who can benefit from the fabulously diverse and world class opportunities the park offers.
Community Access Fund
Active Communities Grant Scheme
How to apply?
Please complete and return our Expression of Interest form. Applicants will typically receive a response/decision within 14 days of your application.
Schools applying to our transport bursary must complete the following booking and enquiry form.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact a member of the Active Communities team on activation@leevalleypark.org.uk.
About the Community Access Fund and the park
The fund offers free access or free travel to the Authority’s venues and services to organisations which have priorities that align with our Sport and Active Recreation Strategy. This strategy has been developed with extensive national, regional and local insight and aligns with the priorities of Sport England, Public Health England and NHS England. You can read more about the priorities in the strategy here.
The fund has provided hundreds of community groups and over 22,000 people with experiences at our cutting edge venues and award winning open spaces, as well as providing highly trained coaches and instructors – all of which otherwise may well not have been possible.
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority stretches 26 miles from East India Dock Basin on the Thames, through east and north London to Ware in Hertfordshire and offers a range of activities from cycling and white water sports to ice skating, horse riding, hockey, tennis and camping, alongside award winning nature reserves, green spaces and heritage sites, attracting around eight million visits a year.
We own three London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues: Lee Valley White Water Centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire which hosted the Canoe Slalom event; and Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
We also have a brand new state of the art twin rink ice centre, the largest indoor and outdoor athletics centre in South East England and a British Horse Society approved riding centre. These venues are all about participation and provide a huge range of opportunities to all kinds of community and school groups.
Our extensive open spaces include eight Sites of Special Scientific Interest, a designation reserved for the most important areas for nature across the UK and 10 Green Flag sites. Five of our sports venues have been awarded Quest, the UK Quality Scheme for Sport and Leisure, and we hold the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge and Investing in Volunteers quality standard.
Who can apply?
You can apply if your organisation is a not-for profit, registered charity, voluntary/community organisation or company. Please note our Community Access Fund will not fund traditional sports clubs. Your organisation must also be based in the Authority’s funding region of London, Essex or Hertfordshire. Funding applications will be carefully assessed and allocated to projects that align to our strategic objectives and have the potential to achieve the greatest impact.
If you are a school or educational establishment, you can also benefit from our Community Access Fund transport bursary. Available to schools that have a pupil premium of 20% or more, the Fund will cover the travel costs for schools engaging in a programme of activity delivered by our Learning and Engagement team. Activities include tailored outdoor environmental programmes and Forest School sessions. There is, a list of available sessions below. Please note, schools are required to cover the delivery costs of our Learning and Engagement team, more details below.
What will we fund?
The fund can cover:
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Activity costs at our sports/leisure venues. This includes the hire of Lee Valley Regional Park facilities and instructors, typically up to the value of £1,000. This can include one off visits to a venue and extended programmes of activity up to a maximum of 12 weeks. Community groups can also benefit and receive funding to cover the cost of educational packages delivered by our dedicated Learning and Engagement team, which take place across the park’s green spaces and within our sports/leisure venues.
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Travel costs for schools taking part in educational packages delivered by our Learning and Engagement team. They have a range of learning and educational packages for school groups, including biodiversity tours, mindfulness classes, woodland crafts and teambuilding sessions.
Funding requirements
To enable the Active Communities team to measure the impact of this scheme, all successful applicants are required to adhere to the Authority’s monitoring and evaluation requirements. Further information regarding what this entails will be outlined during the application process.
Where can you take part?
Lee Valley Regional Park is 26 mile long, 10,000 acre park with a huge variety of award winning green spaces, world class sports venues and ecologically vital wildlife havens. Below you can see our sporting offer with key facts about the different venues and the activities on offer. For our outdoor learning offer please click here.
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Lee Valley White Water Centre
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Located in Waltham Cross in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
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The venue is a world leading destination offering a host of exciting sport and leisure activities including white water rafting, canoeing, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, Hydrospeeding (similar to body boarding) and an inflatable obstacle courses
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The former Olympic venue has two white water courses – the 300m Olympic Standard Competition Course with a 5.5m descent and the 160m Legacy Loop with a 1.6m descent, perfect for training and developing the next generation of champions – and a lake the size of two football pitches.
Lee Valley VeloPark
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Located on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the London Borough of Newham
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It was built for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, centred on the velodrome which houses track cycling, a remodelled Olympic BMX track, miles of challenging mountain bike trails and a one mile floodlit road circuit – making it the only venue in the world to offer these four Olympic cycling activities in one place.
Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre
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Located on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the London Borough of Waltham Forest
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The only purpose built venue for the 2012 Paralympic Games, it hosted the wheelchair tennis event
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It has four indoor and six outdoor tennis courts, as well as two of the very best hockey pitches in the country.
Lee Valley Athletics Centre
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Located in Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield
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The largest indoor and outdoor athletics centre in the south of England, offering a wide choice of track and field activities
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The indoor centre comprises a gym, the only indoor 200 metre track in the region, 60 metre and 130 metre sprint straights, permanent seating for 500 spectators and full indoor jumps and throws facilities.
Lee Valley Ice Centre
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Located in Leyton in the London Borough of Waltham Forest
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Two Olympic sized rinks offer everyone the chance to get on the ice with public skating sessions, family ice discos and British Ice Skating's Skate UK, the new learn to skate course. Plus it’s a training venue for many ice skaters as well as the home rink for the Lee Valley Lions ice hockey club and the Lee Valley London Skating Club
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The venue also has an 80 station gym, two dance studios, a café and a huge array of biodiversity initiatives across the whole site.
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Lee Valley Riding Centre
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Located in Leyton in the London Borough of Waltham Forest
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A British Horse Society approved centre which offers horse riding lessons for beginners through to more experienced riders, as well as superb equestrian facilities
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Facilities include an indoor arena and two floodlit outdoor arenas, show jumping and cross country courses, a café and spectators area, and for horse owners there is a 5* livery service and stables.
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Learning and Engagement activity
Lee Valley Regional Park is an outstanding educational resource for groups of all ages. For adults, school groups and community groups we adapt sessions to suit the group’s requirements. We have provided a wide range of sessions for all groups such as:
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Teambuilding Discovery Days and Orienteering (standard and GPS options)
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Biodiversity and history focussed presentations
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Guided walks in the park
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Stream dipping or land based invertebrate surveying
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Mindfulness and art in the outdoors to aid wellbeing
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Woodland crafts, fire lighting and tool use which can be used to develop social skills and confidence. Our staff are Forest Schools Level 3 trained
Our Learning and Engagement team also deliver a range of teacher training sessions entitled ‘Unlocking the Potential of Outdoor Learning’ - these build teachers’ confidence in using the outdoors. These have covered topics including:
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Health and safety
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Invertebrates - identification, classification, lifecycles, survey equipment
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Using mindfulness in the outdoors to aid wellbeing
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Natural art
The team has experience working with a range of schools, adult and community groups of all ages, including those with special needs.
A full list of Learning and Engagement activities can be downloaded below
Active Communities Grant Scheme
Our Active Communities Grant Scheme provides financial assistance to long term projects that encourage people to be physically active across our portfolio of sports and leisure venues and 10,000 acres of green space.
Objectives and funding criteria
To ensure that grants are awarded to projects that maximise usage and income of the Authority’s sporting venues and green spaces, and to maximise the impact of Lee Valley Regional Park as a regional and national destination for sport and leisure, your project concept will be assessed against the following criteria:
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How effectively the project aligns to our 2023-2026 Sport and Active Recreation strategic objectives?
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How effectively the project engages people and communities that are marginalised from society at a local level – whether that be a result of social, political, economic, or cultural reasons
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How effectively the project uses physical activity as a vehicle to achieve wider social benefits?
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How effectively the project measures and evidences the impact of all interventions?
Who can apply?
You can apply if your organisation is a not-for profit, registered charity, voluntary/community organisation or company. Your organisation must be based in the Authority’s funding region of London, Essex or Hertfordshire.
What will we fund?
The fund can contribute towards all elements of a project concept, including, but not limited to, instructor fees, transport costs and venue/facility hire. Projects must operate for a minimum of 12 weeks/sessions, with funding available for projects that run for up to 12 months. The maximum amount of funding that can be awarded is £5,000, with successful applicants required to match fund a minimum of 50% of the total project cost.
Funding requirement
To enable the Active Communities team to measure the impact of this scheme, all successful applicants are required to adhere to the Authority’s monitoring and evaluation requirements. Further information regarding what this entails will be outlined during the application process.
How to apply?
Please complete and return our Active Communities Grant Scheme application form. Applicants will typically receive a response/decision within 30 days of your application.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact a member of the Active Communities team on activation@leevalleypark.org.uk.