YOUNG ROLE MODEL WINS SPORTED’S YOUNG AMBASSADOR’S CHOICE AWARD

Young role model, Josh Harris (17), has won a £3,000 grant for local community sporting project, The Box Office, after winning the Sported’s coveted, Young Ambassador’s Choice Award.

Josh was one of seven lucky young people from across the UK to have been selected as Sported Young Ambassadors for 2013. The Sported Academy supported by ALCATEL ONE TOUCH is a young ambassadors programme for 16 to 24 year olds who have already been engaged in sporting programmes supported by Sported – a charity dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged young people through sport. Nominated by their local sporting community group, Sported Young Ambassadors are role models within their local communities and are able to demonstrate how sport has changed their lives.

As part of the Sported Academy, Josh entered the Young Ambassador’s Choice Award - a Dragons’ Den-style competition - in which each Sported Young Ambassador had 15 minutes to convince a high-profile judging panel why their local sporting community project deserved the £3,000 grant. Among the judges on the panel were Sported Ambassador and three-times World BMX Champion Shanaze Reade, Global Account Manager at ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Richard Parry, and Chief Executive of Sported and former Chief Executive and Chairman of the Williams Formula One team, Adam Parr.

Josh’s winning community project was amateur boxing club, The Box Office, based in Burngreave. The £3,000 grant will be used to fund a community engagement programme which uses boxing as a basis for improving young people’s lives and the communities in which they live. The programme aims to reduce the risk of young people getting involved in crime and antisocial behaviour by helping them expend pent up frustration and aggression through boxing and teaching them how to manage their emotions more constructively. The second tier of the programme will look to establish a sustainable delivery programme through the creation of a Social Enterprise, which will deliver basic literacy and numeracy skills to help improve their prospects for the future, using boxing as a tool to improve educational attainment.

Josh Harris, Young Ambassador’s Choice Award winner, said: “It’s a great privilege to be a Sported Young Ambassador. Since joining the Sported Academy I have gained some brilliant experience to add to my CV and done some amazing things, so to cap it off by winning the Young Ambassador’s Choice Award is the icing on the cake! A big thanks to Sported, ALCATEL ONE TOUCH and my fellow Young Ambassadors for making it such an unforgettable experience.”

Adam Parr, Chief Executive at Sported, said: "Huge congratulations to Josh for winning Sported Academy’s Young Ambassadors Award 2013. We were thoroughly impressed with Josh’s pitch, he showed great maturity and presented a compelling case for such a worthy cause. The Box Office is an amazing community project and the £3,000 grant from Sported will make a big difference to the organisation, its volunteers and, most importantly, the young people who are using the power of sport to make the most of their lives.”

Tracey Hudson, Head of UK & Ireland Marketing at ALCATEL ONE TOUCH, said: “A big congratulations to Josh, he really deserves it. His idea for the the Box Office is exactly why we started working with Sported – to help local communities through sporting initiatives and make a difference.”
Helen Whitfield, Young Ambassador for the North West, was the runner-up, winning a grant of £2,000 for her chosen sporting community project, Positive Futures North Liverpool.

For more information on Sported and the Sported Academy, please visit www.sported.org.uk . For more information on ALCATEL ONE TOUCH please visit www.alcatelonetouch.co.uk or Facebook.com/alcatelonetouchuk.