Latest News

Ring in the New!

"I'm so proud of the progress we've made at the Sports Foundation in such a short space of time. Our expansion shows just how important this work is. And it won't stop here. We need to build on this success to improve access to sport for more young people across the North East. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are less than three years away and we need to use that to inspire and motivate children to get into sport, so that it becomes the healthy habit of a lifetime."

                                                                                                                                     Tony Blair

As part of our continued development and working commitment to helping more young people participate in sporting activities in the North East, we are pleased to announce that there have been some exciting new changes over the last few months within the Foundation.

New Charity

In November 2009, TBSF gained independent charitable status and would like to thank County Durham Foundation for their help, support and advice over the past 2 years. The new charity and trustees are now in place to drive forward our mission.

New Offices

The Foundation has moved to a new office in Newcastle, a more central location that will allow the Foundation to better serve the North East as a whole. Until October of last year, the Foundation has been run by two members of staff, based in the former Prime Minister's constituency office in Sedgefield. Our move to bigger offices in Newcastle will help the Sports Foundation meet the needs of more sports clubs, local communities and the children they introduce to sport.

New Staff

As part of our expansion, the Tony Blair Sports Foundation welcomes Joe Keenan onto the staff team. Joe has worked for nearly 20 years with membership based organisations. His specialism is in recruiting and motivating volunteers. He also has vast project management experience working in partnership with different campaigning organisations to deliver social change.

New Community Ambassadors

Eight outstanding community sports volunteers have agreed to become new Community Ambassadors for the Tony Blair Sports Foundation. To compliment the work done with our Sports Ambassadors which include Steve Cram, James Cracknell and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, the role of Community Ambassadors will be to work with the Foundation at a local level within their sports in order to recruit new volunteers and to identify need in their local communities where sports could benefit from having more coaches or officials trained by the Foundation.

New Website

Our new website launched in January 2010. It has been developed and designed to be more user friendly and interactive for members, partner organisations and the general public alike. It features all the usual information and news but will also develop into a resource for our qualified volunteers and will provide an open space for the discussion and development of ideas that will help us move forward. Watch this space for more details!

New Year

As we move into a New Year, we would like to thank all of our volunteers, partners and sponsors who have worked and supported us to make the Foundation a success. We look forward to working with you all and welcoming new members in 2010.