Charity work wins club ‘green’ status

THE charitable arm of Widnes Vikings has achieved a full Green Standard in a recent quality assurance assessment carried out by an external body on behalf of the Rugby Football League.

The Vikings Sports Foundation has been given the distinction.

A two-day visit focused on assessing the approach to the Sky Try programme, in particular evaluating the quality of coaching and the impact it makes on the children and schools it works with. Sky Try is a programme supported by broadcaster Sky and provides coaching for boys and girls in Years 2 to 4 at primary school and Years 7 to 9 at secondary school with appropriate competition opportunities.

Widnes Vikings community integrated director Richard Mun- son said: “We are immensely proud to have received this report from CCCreates which highlights the excellent work of our community coaches and the processes we have in place to ensure quality in what we offer to schools. Sky Try is a high priority programme for the Vikings Sports Foundation as it offers children the first chances to play rugby league.

“We reached over 2,500 children last year across Halton and have set ambitious targets this year to expand this further across areas of Chester and Liverpool.”

The charity achieved the maximum 12 Green Standards across three assessment areas.

The Vikings Sports Foundation has begun delivery of its 2016-17 Sky Try programme.

Schools wanting to take part or find out what other educational programmes the Vikings offer are encouraged to email Liam Clark on liamc@widnesvikings.co.uk