Vote for your grassroots sportswoman of the year

26 Oct 2022 11:00 AM

The award is part of the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year awards and voting closes on Thursday, November 10.

 

You can now vote for your This Girl Can Grassroots Sportswoman of the Year after the Sunday Times published their shortlist.

Our This Girl Can campaign has partnered with the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year awards to support the grassroots award, and the nominations have now been whittled down to a four-strong shortlist.

Four of the seven awards, which will be handed out at a ceremony on November 17, are decided by a panel of distinguished judges that includes Jessica Ennis-Hill, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Ama Agbeze, while the other three categories will be the result of a public vote.

The This Girl Can Grassroots Sportswoman of the Year Award is designed to celebrate women who are organising amazing grassroots sports and activities in their communities, up and down the country, to help women find joy through getting active.

And, following a record number of applications for the award, you can now vote for your favourite.

Voting closing on Thursday, November 10.

The nominees

Amy Cooper – Onboard Skatepark

Amy set up up Onboard Skatepark to create a safe and welcoming space for young people to try extreme sports (BMX, skateboarding, scootering).

Extreme sport can reach kids and communities that might not engage with more traditional sporting activities.

Onboard gives vulnerable young people an opportunity to try sports and Amy is the driving force behind it.

Mahvish Akram – WBC Women’s Boxing Club

Mahvish became the co-owner of WBC Women’s Boxing Club in 2014.

She's done immense by bringing communities, girls and women from all walks of life together who attend the club.

Mahvish has also actively gone above and beyond in breaking down barriers and stereotypes and has worked to inspire people of all ages.

Eloise Moller – Single Homeless Project

Eloise works for the charity Single Homeless Projectand has spent the last five years creating and developing a project that's aimed at improving the health of those experiencing homelessness, using sport and physical activity.

The project focuses on removing the barriers that those experiencing homelessness face when accessing physical activity.

These include financial constraints, digital exclusion, no access to clothing and equipment, low self-esteem and confidence, presumptions and stigma made about them not wanting to access sport.

Michele Glassup – parkrun, Feltham Young Offenders Institute

Michele is the parkrun event director at Feltham Young Offender Institute in West London, seeking to reduce reoffending and rehabilitate ex-offenders through sport.

She set up the event in the prison in 2019 and is part of a wider movement to bring parkrun to prisons across the UK.

She's nominated for her work bringing parkrun to prisoners and using sport to help reduce re-offending.

Michele has said of her sessions: “If success was measured in smiles, we’d smash it every week."

Find out more about the nominees, hear from them and vote for your favourite.