Young people from across the UK visited Wimbledon last week to celebrate their achievements for completing a tennis programme to help boost their skills and confidence.
Youth charity The Prince's Trust works in partnership with schools and centres across the UK to run the xl programme for young people aged 13 – 19 who are struggling in school.
Young people on the course are also able to take part in a tennis programme, funded by Great Britain's leading tennis charity, the Tennis Foundation, which has helped more than 300 young people through the provision of tennis related activities since 2009.
During The Championships young people who have completed the tennis programme this year took the trip to watch Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic at the famous tennis club in south west London.
Tennis clubs that include Dunfermline in Scotland, Tipton in the West Midlands and Gosling High Performance Tennis Centre in Hertfordshire, provide 12 hours of coaching, an inter-xl club tournament and tennis related progression opportunities to those young people that wish to continue their involvement with the sport.
This year's project worked with six different xl clubs across the three main areas in which the project ran, including Dacorum Education Centre in Hertfordshire, Shire Oak in the West Midlands and St Columbas in Dunfermline, whose students won their respective tennis tournaments.
Lauren Hyams, National Head of The Prince's Trust xl programme said: "I am delighted that the tennis programme has continued to be so successful, now in its fifth year; the growth of the young people taking part has been outstanding. We know that participating in sports programmes is a great way to engage young people and I look forward to hearing about their progress in tennis and education in the future."
The Tennis Foundation, which focuses on making the sport accessible to every community, recently pledged their support to fund the partnership for four years. Tom Gibbins, Head of Education, said: "Working with organisations, like The Prince's Trust, enables us to introduce the sport to a community that would not ordinarily have the chance to play tennis. We are hugely supportive of this partnership and look forward to seeing its progress over the next four years."
Youth charity The Prince's Trust helps disadvantaged young people to get their lives on track. Three in four young people helped by The Trust move into work, training or education.
Find out more about The Prince's Trust.
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