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Tony Blair launches Sports Foundation Corporate Membership Scheme

Tony Blair today launched the Sports Foundation’s Corporate Membership Scheme to get North East businesses working to improve access to sport for all.

As part of the charity’s drive to get the North East ready for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Sports Foundation is looking to partner with businesses across the region to create a legacy that will make the North East a beacon of sporting success for many years to come.

Speaking after the launch event in Sedgefield, Co. Durham, Tony Blair, Patron of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, said: “I have always been passionate about sport and its capacity to change people's lives. It is often the best public health policy, the best way to bring people together. When North East businesses sign up to my Sports Foundation’s new scheme, their employees will have the opportunity to volunteer as sports coaches and officials, and in the process they will open up sport to even more young people in their local communities.

At the launch event, the charity’s founder announced that the new South Durham Enterprise Agency would be the first organisation to join the innovative scheme. The Agency, which is a merger between The Enterprise Agency and SASDA, will officially merge over the summer.

Tony Blair said: “I’m very pleased to announce this new partnership with the exciting new South Durham Enterprise Agency. Individually, both SASDA and the Enterprise Agency have had such a positive impact on so many people’s lives over the years, I congratulate them on the decision to join forces so that they can make even more of a difference.”

Talking about the progress of his Sports Foundation, which was only founded in late 2007, Tony Blair said: “This scheme is yet another example of the Foundation taking its activity to the next level. I’m so proud of the progress we’ve made in such a short space of time. And that progress won’t stop here. We need to build on this early success to improve access to sport for young people across the North East so that this region becomes a beacon of sporting success. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are less than two 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.”