Tenniswise: Wimbledon 2021
04/07/21
The Youth Charter has campaigned for, and contributed to the improvement of Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Participation within British and World Tennis over the past 26 years. This work included the launch of the YC '22' Tenniswise Report at Wimbledon 2015.
As Wimbledon 2021 continues, we renew our call for British and World Tennis to team up with other sports and reach out to our disadvantaged youth and communities where the next potential Wimbledon Champions can be found.
In 1995, the Youth Charter invited Jamaican tennis professional, Osmond Rose to hold a series of tennis coaching clinics at the Northern Tennis Club in Didsbury with the aim of integrating inner city youngsters to the Northern Tennis Club’s tennis development programme.
With the support of Youth Charter Ambassadors, Jeremy Bates, Tim Henman and David Felgate, these clinics helped break down the perception of exclusion and reduce class and cultural barriers. However, the levels of inner city youth participation virtually disappeared without the sustained enthusiasm of all concerned.
The Youth Charter has had a 28 year presence in sub Saharan Africa. The late President Nelson Mandela had a vision for sport in post apartheid South Africa to help the social and human development of young people and communities. Mandela saw sport as a vaccine and an antidote to not only heal the injustices of the past, but to also inject hope in the potential of the future. For the Townships, tennis was seen as one of the sports where the breakthrough of a player of colour would realise the legacy of the late tennis great, Arthur Ashe. The Wimbledon champion pioneered community development through tennis during the apartheid regime.
The Youth Charter '22' Tennisewise Report was launched at Wimbledon 2015, providing discussion, debate and evidence on how British and World Tennis can become a more diverse and inclusive sport and help to engage, equip and empower our young people.
