About the community group/organisation 

Tennis Southland is the umbrella organisation for the five sub associations areas of Central, Northern Western, Eastern and Invercargill. 

Last year Tennis Southland had 549 members across 26 clubs in Southland. 

Tennis Southland co-ordinates tournaments, competitive leagues, representative teams (junior, senior and master levels) and coaching for children in Years 1 – 8.  

In addition, Tennis Southland has started drop in sessions at its tennis courts at the Surrey Park sports precinct to teach children the game of tennis who may not have the means to join a club or access to coaching. 

 What the grant went towards 

Tennis Southland replaced and upgraded the nets and repainted the lines at 21 tennis courts throughout Invercargill, predominately at schools and some Invercargill City Council-owned sites, thanks to grants from the Invercargill Licensing Trust and ILT Foundation of $20,000 and $55,000 respectively. 

The funding was also used to put up dividing nets between four adjoining courts at Verdon College. 

 What the grant means to the community group/organisation 

 “[The funding] has opened up a lot of opportunities for us to look at how we can deliver tennis to a wider group of people,” Tennis Southland operations manager Jo Grimwood said. 

“It creates huge opportunity for the public because they can access free courts at any time now… and for Tennis Southland to hold events that it wouldn’t have been able to hold before.”