Sports Club Orient (SCORE) Project

SCORE is an exciting concept which will provide essential new recreational, sports and community facilities for the residents of Leyton, Leytonstone, south east Hackney, Stratford and Walthamstow. It is one of the first attempts nationally to bring to life the Social Exclusion Units Policy Action Team 10 Report on how sport and the arts can contribute to crime reduction, health awareness, educational attainment and employability.

SCORE will be a split site community venue, located opposite Leyton Orient Football Ground. A community building will house a variety of different activities including indoor sports, childcare, youth provision, meeting spaces for local groups, a community health centre and access to training and employment services. In addition, there will be major upgrading and improvement of existing football, tennis and bowls sporting facilities, and a dedicated indoor climbing area; multi use games area and new childrens play areas. The projects roots lie in work undertaken in recent years by a number of local organisations, which identified a real need for better quality and affordable community facilities in an accessible location which would attract communities historically under represented in terms of their sports participation. The outreach work programmes designed around the facility would support this approach with targeted programmes aimed at young offenders, stable and ex drug users, excluded pupils, refugees etc.

The three key partners for the SCORE project are Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme (LOCSP), Waltham Forest Housing Action Trust (WFHAT) and O-Regen a community economic development agency. Other partners include the Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone Primary Care Trust and the Lawn Tennis Association who are providing capital funding for the project. The Football Foundation and the Sport England Lottery Fund are also currently considering the proposal.

We are seeking to develop the proposals sufficiently to submit a detailed planning application by February 2002. If everything goes according to plan construction will begin in the autumn of 2002, with the facilities open to the public in November / December of 2003.

Revenue funding secured to develop the key sports, football, tennis, climbing, bowls, basketball etc. and to build awareness from now until SCORE opens in late 2003 is now being sought. Initial funding from Active Communities Development Fund, Nationwide, Carlton, Help a London Child, and the From Offending to Employment SRB project has already been secured.

Potential funding bids are being developed through Active Sports, Active Schools, NOF & Awards For All with plans to apply to other charitable and commercial sector organisations to support the project pre and post construction.