Sunderland Football Club are grooming their young soccer stars of the future at the sports centre aptly named after one of their former greats Raich Carter.

The centre cost £5.8m – around £4.4m of which came from Lottery funding – and Sport England’s aim was to provide accessible sporting facilities in a deprived area to promote and develop sport in the community.

Sport England also wanted to play a key part in the wider regeneration of the area, creating employment for the local residents and getting the region’s residents active and engaged in sport.

Now over 300,000 people visit the centre each year helping Sport England meets its target of upping participation by one per cent a year up to 2020.

Facilities at the centre include a 25m swimming pool, a sports hall, fitness suite, synthetic turf pitch, training suite, indoor children’s play area, meeting/function room and a café.

The centre, which opened in May 200, now provides a superb multi-sport environment giving everyone in the area the chance to develop their sporting talents, or simply to have fun while getting some worthwhile exercise.  

Raich Carter Centre factfile

• 35 new jobs have been created as a result of this facility
• 1,000 people use the ICT suite every month, including 50 hours of activities for young offenders each wee
• There are 18 regular coaches at this multi-sports centre
• Weekly coaching hours for under 18’s have grown to 41 hours a week
• The number of adult coaching sessions has reached 31 hours a week
• Kids Power provides free activity sessions for children from the local schools

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To find out more about the Everyday Sport campaign, for activities taking place in your area and simple tips on how to get active, log onto www.everydaysport.com or call the Everyday Sport hotline: 0800 587 6000 .