About
Passionate about transforming young lives
Seb’s Foundation was established in 2016 to foster hope and inclusion, by using the power and positivity of sport and education to remove barriers and enable young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to fulfil their ambitions and flourish.
By providing scholarships, rugby training programmes, as well as workshops to develop mental health and self-esteem to young people who wouldn’t usually have access to them, our aspiration is to see them develop and thrive. Our aim is to provide opportunities, open new horizons and nurture aspirations that would otherwise have been closed to them and beyond their reach.
Child poverty in the UK
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There were 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2019/20*
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In a classroom of 30 children, 9 were living in poverty**
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Children are the group of the population most likely to be in poverty***
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Child poverty has been rising in both absolute and relative terms for nearly a decade***
Children in poverty have to fight harder for their futures. It has serious implications for their academic attainment, their social networks and their mental health. Our work is rooted in investing in those futures.
Rugby – an agent for change
Rugby is a sport that is currently closed to the majority of young people in the UK. We believe that rugby should be made accessible for all and can be a means to building social networks, developing positive values and, above all, improving life chances. The sporting and educational prospects of our children can be transformed by leveraging the benefits of this sport. The benefits of increasing inclusion also cannot be underestimated for the sport of rugby. Too many of our promising youngsters have no access to the sport at present, so there are huge opportunities to expand the pool of talent.
Our roots
Seb’s Foundation was formed following the death of a young man of 20 years old who had a passion for rugby. Academically gifted and a talented sportsman, during his short life Seb Adeniran-Olule enjoyed the camaraderie of playing for two renowned schools and three great clubs. He represented his county, his region and his country on numerous occasions. Seb’s Foundation was created to bring hope to others from the tragedy of his death, to provide for other young people the opportunities that he was fortunate to enjoy.
* Households Below Average Income, Statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low-income households for financial years 1994/95 to 2019/20, Table 4.3tr. Department for Work and Pensions, 2021
** Households Below Average Income, Statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low-income households for financial years 1994/95 to 2019/20, Table 4_5db. Department for Work and Pensions, 2021
***Children’s Commissioner – Child Poverty: The crisis we can’t keep ignoring (21 Jan 2021)