Sport Wales is to invest a total of £3m into making sport more accessible to groups that traditionally find taking part in activities challenging.

£1.5m will be made available through the Calls4Action scheme to make sport more attractive to young women and girls, while a further £1.5m will be dedicated to projects encouraging more people with disabilities and children from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds to participate more regularly.

The funding will be made available to community projects and clubs looking to increase participation among the groups and Sport Wales CEO Sarah Powell said the grass roots body was looking for "bold, new approaches" to come forward for the grant programme.

"There are known gaps in participation which we do not accept as inevitable, but to tackle the gap we need a focussed and concerted effort," she said.

"We don't want more of the same. If we want to see a significant step change, something different must be done."

Sports Minister, John Griffiths, added: "Inequality in participation between differing groups is not inevitable and can and must be tackled. "

Our aim is to to ensure that young people in particular, irrespective of their social background, have the opportunity to take part in sport at a grassroots level."

Outline proposals for funding from the Calls4Action programme need to be submitted by June 20th 2014.

To find out more about Calls4Action and the other funding streams available from Sport Wales, click here.

• One of the projects to already have received funding is RCT Homes Go4it project. The social housing provider works with Rhondda Cynon Taf Council to combat the increasing poverty gap with family support packages which are aimed at getting families into exercise, sport and good health.