Who are we?

Welcome to Crewe & Nantwich RUFC!

Our community rugby club is where young talents (ages 5+) ignite their passion for rugby. Our club, driven by dedicated volunteers and coaches, fosters community spirit and personal growth. We’ve flourished, especially in our women’s and girls’ sections. With girls now making up 28% of our minis and juniors, we’re dedicated to expanding further.

But here’s the challenge: We have only one changing facility with shared spaces, limiting who can train or play at any one time due to privacy and safeguarding considerations. Our girls’ teams, in particular, are forced to change in “Ted’s Shed”. Watch our U14s girls show why these “facilities” are so inadequate!

Our ambition: So that we can cater for all of our current teams and continue to grow our club, we want to convert our current changing facilities into four self-contained changing areas, with the addition of separate spaces for male and female officials. Together, let's build a brighter future for all our players! 

Who are Crewe and Nantwich RUFC? 

With over 400 active members, our club fields 20+ teams for all ages and genders, from U5s to Veterans. Established in 1923, our home is “The Vagrants,” a community sports club located between Crewe and Nantwich. We are driven by a passionate management committee and supported by an active volunteer base, including our dedicated coaches. Supporting us means investing in the dreams of tomorrow's rugby stars and enhancing community facilities.

Key Highlights:

•      Teams: 3 senior men's, 2 senior ladies', and various boys’ and girls’ teams.
•      Leagues: Senior men in Regional 2 North West, senior ladies in Women's        Championship North 2.
•     Academies: Boys and girls aged 16-18.
•     Diverse Sections: Mini and Juniors for both genders starting at U5s.
•     Focus on Female Participation: Fastest-growing segment with U12, U14, U16, and U18 teams, 28% of mini and junior memberships.
•     Achievements: Selections for Sale and Cheshire squads; two North of England U20s; 11 U16 girls in Cheshire squad, two in England Development Squad.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are committed to being an inclusive club creating opportunities for all, but our facilities don’t support this ambition. The current layout restricts usage based on age and gender, impacting our thriving girls' and women's teams, and limiting the events and games we can hold at any one time.

We now have an incredible opportunity to remodel our changing facilities to create a truly inclusive rugby club for all. Your support is crucial to remove these barriers and promote our growth as a modern, community-based sports facility.

Benefits:

•        Enhances facilities for all club sections and visitors.
•        Resolves privacy, segregation, and safeguarding concerns.
•        Enables minis and juniors to train without conflicts with seniors.
•        Creates modern, safe, welcoming spaces encouraging active sports participation.
•        Increases the number of concurrent matches across age groups and genders.
•        Accommodates more teams and members with improved facilities.
•        Provides inclusive changing areas for our growing women's and girls' sections.
•        Ensures a positive match-day experience for all players, opposition, and referees, including disabled visitors.
•        Demonstrates our investment in the club, retaining existing players with modern, secure facilities.
•        Improves cleanliness and hygiene with appropriate showering facilities.

Below are images of the current changing rooms with communal showers:

This fundraising campaign aims to raise £30,000 - Sport England sees the value of our project and has pledged £15,000 if we can raise the other £15,000 through at least 100 unique supporters through this crowdfunder. So we need your help!

By refurbishing our existing changing rooms, this will allow us to tackle the inequality we currently have in our facilities, improving the sporting opportunities for the girls and young women - specifically our 5-16 year olds, giving them proper facilities that remove the barriers the current changing rooms create. 

Furthermore, these works will benefit all sections of the sports club - primarily our own teams, but also for those of the teams visiting us to play and train, and the officials that come to referee our matches.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We anticipate the refurbishment costing £98,000. Whilst this is a big investment it also demonstrates just how serious we are about creating safe and inclusive spaces for our players. We have already received a commitment from the RFU of £40,000 towards our target and the club is aiming to raise a further £28,000 from various other funding sources. This leaves a gap of £30,000.

This fundraising campaign aims to raise £30,000 - we need to raise £15,000 and if we do Sport England have agreed to match our total to get us to the target. Every penny raised will go directly to the changing rooms project. The remaining funding is being raised through smaller club fundraising activities.

Below are digital renders and plans that have been approved of the new layout which includes:

• 4 separate changing rooms, each with their own showering and toilet facilities
• a physio room.
• 2 separate changing rooms for officials
• a dedicated disabled access toilet for visitors

Community impact

 Outcomes we aim to achieve from this project:

1. Develop recruitment and retention and within age-grade teams with view to continuing to participate in competitive leagues and National Cup competitions.

2. Work with RFU development team to improve the level of coaching for the girls age group teams and to develop players to PDG pathways.

3. Develop links with local schools and community to provide a community-based girls and ladies section committed to diversity. 

Impact on the wider community

Your contribution extends beyond the rugby club, fostering an inclusive, vibrant community hub for all. Our club, a welcoming space for aspiring rugby players, both boys and girls, is also a central point for diverse local events.

The changing rooms are also available for use to the hockey teams that play at the Vagrants, as well as a growing cohort of American Football, and the many local football teams that use the astroturf pitch at the sports club.

In donating, you're not just supporting our rugby players; you're enhancing a communal space that welcomes and unites people of all ages and backgrounds. Your generosity helps us in improving the physical activity opportunities for everyone, by creating an inclusive environment for many sporting events, thereby enriching the lives of everyone in our community.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!