#ThankfulThursday- Having Squadkit in our squad
#ThankfulThursday- Having Squadkit in our squad
Squadkit have been one of our biggest supporters and corporate partners and, when you see their core values of participation, wellbeing, commitment to yourself and your team-mates, endurance and fun, it’s easy to see why.
‘By igniting young people’s interest in sport, we not only help instil in them a lifelong love of fitness and activity, but also essential life skills like teamwork, fair play, confidence and leadership’
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
What Squadkit are all about
Squadkit is a local business based in Oundle and are the leading sportswear brand for independent schools nationwide. They understand the requirements of growing bodies, specialist kit and (as we’re sure many parents are thankful for) durability. Their kit goes through development and extensive testing with professional athletes (and the washing machine too).
Squadkit believe in environmentally responsible, ethical trade and hold themselves to very high standards with regards to this. Plus, their kit looks amazing as well (we love the Mintridge Foundation clothing that they have provided for our team of Programme Staff, Volunteers, Fundraisers and not forgetting our loyal Ambassadors)!
As if that wasn’t enough, Squadkit have now turned their attention to female sports participation, particularly in teenage girls. Both Mintridge and Squadkit passionately advocate sport for all but, when you see that 50% of girls drop out of sport when they hit puberty due to body concerns and self-consciousness, it is clear why this is a clear area of focus for us all.
WE BELIEVE, in enabling activity for all by providing every young person with high performance, great fitting sports kit they feel proud to wear. (Squadkit’s mission statement)
At Mintridge, we ran a BollyRun programme in Nottingham, designed to get girls engaged and participating in sports and physical activity in a fun and noncompetitive way. This six-month programme involved two full days in Nottingham at Nottingham Academy, including whole school assemblies, classroom sessions and small group work, featuring discussion topics such as body image, cultural barriers, self-confidence, team building and communication, allowing the girls to openly voice their concerns and highlight any barriers that they face limiting their participation in sport, in a safe and supported environment.
The highlight of the days involved a Bollywood dancing class followed by a run with the incredible Marilyn Okoro and, during sessions throughout the following six months, the girls worked collaboratively to develop their own running clubs. Find out more about our BollyRun scheme here.
Squadkit have conducted research into the causes and discovered that one of the biggest reasons for this drop is breast discomfort. They’ve used their research to highlight what teenage girls require from a sports bra and have developed the Limitless sports bra, which is comfortable, adjustable, accessible, fashionable and affordable.
Working together to promote sport for all
We’re sure that, from all of this, you can see why we are so thrilled to be partnered with them. Through our partnership, we work together to deliver their core values and corporate social responsibility through running our programmes with them in the independent schools that they work with, notably through the Squadkit Scholarship Programme and, as we move into 2020, with their new Ambassador Programme too!
What really sets this close partnership apart is Squadkit’s desire to reach schools that wouldn’t have been able to access our team of Olympians, Paralympians and other professional sports stars without help. The schools that benefit from Squadkit programmes commit to donating a programme to a government-funded school, to enable more young people to access the benefits of such high-level mentoring.
Squadkit have done a huge amount for us, for which we are incredibly grateful. If you have seen our new, redesigned logo and website, this is thanks to Squadkit who funded Mosaic’s expertise. This has simply transformed our look and places us in a very positive position regarding promotion of our amazing success stories.
They have also provided us with the branded kit for our staff and ambassadors and two of their incredible employees are so inspired by the partnership and what we do, that they have committed to running the London Landmarks Marathon to raise funds for the Mintridge Foundation. You can sponsor them here. This, along with the funded programmes and their donations, have been integral to the growth of The Mintridge Foundation and the number of children we have been able to positively impact.
Our impact
Through our partnership we have been able to impact 1,952 students in twelve different schools since March 2019. We have covered the country from Glasgow down to Cheltenham and have delivered our Silver and Bronze programmes with a wide range of athletes, including tennis ace Jade Windley, netball superstars Pamela Cookey and Eboni Usoro Brown, diving Olympian Becky Gallantree and Paralympian archer Danielle Brown.
What the future holds
As we have entered an exciting Olympic and Paralympic year, Squadkit, together with us, The Mintridge Foundation, as their official charity partner, hope to continue to promote the benefits of sport to young people with more programmes and some exciting competitions (involving a certain ex-England Netball Captain, Pamela Cookey, and England Rugby Union’s latest fullback causing excitement in the Men’s Six Nations, George Furbank). We can’t wait to share more information about this with you in the coming months. Keep an eye out on our social media channels to find out more!
We are continuously looking for ways in which we can work with businesses and organisations to bring the benefits of sport and physical activity to more young people through partnerships, just like this one! We would love to hear from you about opportunities within your corporate social responsibility and how we can develop more great partnerships!
Please contact Alex Wallace if you would like to discuss more at alex@mintridge.org.uk .
Visit Squadkit’s website to learn more about what they do at https://www.squadkit.com/.
For further information on our latest programme at Thomas Deacon Academy in Peterborough that was only made possible because of Squadkit, click here.