6 July 2026 | All News
We’re proud to be working with the Sweaty Betty Foundation’s Change Starts in the Changing Room campaign, helping transform school changing rooms across London and the West Midlands while creating valuable skills and training opportunities for young people.
Delivered in partnership with the Sweaty Betty Foundation and supported by £89,000 of new funding from the London Marathon Foundation, the campaign aims to remove one of the barriers preventing girls from participating in PE and physical activity.
Research by the Sweaty Betty Foundation found that one in three girls has missed a PE lesson because of their changing room experience. By putting girls at the heart of the design process, the campaign empowers them to reimagine their changing rooms as spaces where they feel comfortable, confident and ready to be active.
Building on a successful pilot in London, schools across London and the West Midlands will now be invited to take part, with teams of girls developing their own changing room designs. Ten schools – five in each region – will receive funding to bring their ideas to life – just like this school in Bermondsey, one of the winning designs from 2025.
As delivery partner, VIY will then work with the winning schools to transform their designs into reality through hands-on refurbishment projects. Working alongside our trade supplier partners, including Dulux, our programmes will also provide practical construction experience, mentoring and Entry Level 3 City & Guilds qualifications for young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming NEET (including the girls who will co-design these changing rooms), helping them build confidence, skills and pathways into employment.
This partnership builds on our strong track record of helping to make grassroots sports clubs and active community spaces more inclusive, to help more local people and communities become and keep active, whilst also working with local young people who may use or benefit from these spaces. This includes our programme renovating 200 such spaces with Sport England, making clubs more inclusive for women and girls with the Barclays Community Sports Fund and for grassroots rugby clubs with Continental Tyres and Kwik Fit.
Sarah Drake-Pullin, Fundraising Manager at the Sweaty Betty Foundation, said:
“Change doesn’t stop with the changing room. Girls’ voices are at the heart of this work, helping us identify and break down the barriers that stop girls getting active. Our recommendations from the pilot year, cited in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Game On report, are now shaping what changing facilities look like for girls across the country. Now, in collaboration with the London Marathon Foundation, we can take that same model to more schools and ensure more girls have the tools, confidence and platform to influence the decisions that affect them.”
The announcement comes during National School Sports Week (6–12 July 2026) and marks an exciting new chapter for the campaign. By combining youth voice, practical refurbishment and vocational skills development, the partnership will help create more inclusive school environments while opening up new opportunities for the young people delivering the transformations.
We’re excited to be working alongside the Sweaty Betty Foundation and London Marathon Foundation to create spaces where more girls can thrive and to inspire the next generation of young people through meaningful, hands-on learning.
