Tennis Wales' Inclusion Plan: 'Opening Up' Tennis

Jamie said: “We launched our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Plan for Wales 12 months ago. Our aim is to ensure we have a sport that’s open to everyone, right across Wales. We’ve made great progress with the support of our tennis community and partners in Wales. Below is what we've achieved so far. 

• The creation of a bursary programme for our Coach Development Centre. We offered 40 bursaries in 2022, and 18 so far this year. This represents more than £15k of investment to date, increasing the number of female, disabled, and Welsh speaking coaches, and those from rural locations. An example of the success of the bursary programme is that 41% of candidates on the LTA Level-1 Assistant course in 2022 were female, surpassing our annual target. 
  
  Find out more about bursaries
   
• The launch of our Tie-Break fund, which enables tennis clubs, coaching teams, partner organisations and charities to apply to Tennis Wales for funding to help open tennis up to more people in Wales. 
   
• Investment into LGBTQIA+ tennis activity. This has included supporting the launch of Pride in Tennis in Britain, the Cardiff Baseliners LGBTQ Tennis Club, as well as continuing to fund tennis activity at the Wild & Out Festival in Pembrokeshire. 
   
• Securing £77k direct funding from the Welsh Government to deliver our anti-racist action plan. This takes tennis to young people in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, using the power of tennis to bring communities together.
   
• Expansion of our Open Court disability coaching and training programme from nine venues in 2021 to more than 30 today. There have been more than 500 participants on the programme, and we’re on track for our 1,000 player target next year.
   
• Growing our LTA SERVES programme. There are more than 40 programmes across Wales in leisure centres, religious buildings, prisons & community centres - taking tennis to under-served locations.
  
  Find out more about LTA SERVES
   
• Signing up to, and joining, Chwarae Teg, the charity inspiring, leading and delivering gender equality in Wales.