Leeds Sports Exchange - can you help?

Building upon the success of our Leeds School Uniform Exchange project, we have recently begun work exploring the potential for a similar project focused on sports kit for children and young people.

With funding from Yorkshire Sport Foundation, we are doing an initial piece of research to get a better feel for whether there is demand for an initiative that makes it easy for people across Leeds to offer or ask for good quality second hand sports kit - things like football boots or trainers.

Anecdotally, we've heard that many families struggle to afford to buy the right kit for children to take part in sport or other activities - either at school or at a local club or community organisation.

Not having the right kit can be a real barrier that prevents young people from experiencing all the benefits of getting involved in activities - both in terms of physical & mental health benefits - and the opportunities to learn new skills, meet new people and, most importantly, have fun.

Before we seek funding to pilot some kind of sports kit exchange in Leeds, we'd like to understand more about what's currently happening around Leeds to make it easy to share sport kit and equipment.

With that in mind, we have a short questionnaire for local sports clubs, asking if they have something already in place to help people to pass on, or find, good quality kit.

It might be something formal - like a stall at events every now and then - or it might be that informally people are encouraged to pass on kit, for example via a club Facebook group.

Now more than ever we're desperate to ensure that this summer, every child in Leeds has the chance to take part in fun activity - and isn't held back because they don't have the right kit.

We're hopeful that we can help to set something up that, just like our School Uniform Exchange, taps into the instinctive generosity and desire to support each other that we know is strong in our city.

You can fill in the questionnaire to tell us more about what happens at your club here. Or if you've got other thoughts or ideas please email us.