Who are we?
Banbridge Town Football Club (Juniors) is a community focused club based in County Down. The club provides football and associated opportunities for children from under-6 to under-17 from the local area. The club currently fields 24 teams across the 10 junior age groups on a weekly basis in a mixture of participation, developmental and competitive leagues.
The club has always prided itself on offering a platform for children from every background and every area of the town to come together with a shared purpose to enhance all of their lives.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We have launched this appeal for community support to enable us to be able to welcome more children into our club, to experience the wonderful opportunities that so many children have each year.
As a club we have not been immune from the ever increasing challenges which limited facilities and increasing costs bring, especially as children's sport has experienced a boom since COVID. These increasing costs have led to us having to increase the membership fees which we charge to the kids and efforts to fund raise just to survive. Unfortunately, this has had the knock-on effect of making participation in our club and what we offer become unaffordable to many in our local community. This has been particularly negatively impactful on the new inhabitants of our town who have chosen or been forced to set up home here.
Some recent outreach carried out with local schools and parents of children already in our programmes have seen us identify lack of opportunities and financial constraints as obstacles to inclusivity. Our 'My Town, My Club' scheme aims to remove some of those barrier and use our club as an enabler for better integration amongst our children.
Current club resources simply do not enable us to undertake the work which is needed. That is why we need the assistance of the community and funders.
We want to extend the reach of what we offer by taking our scheme to the rural communities on the edge of our town. We need your help to fund the hire of facilities, engage coaches, transport children and their families to our scheme centres and to remove the barrier to them becoming full members of our club.
We will deliver a 6-week programme before 31st March aiming to engage rural communities from around the Banbridge area, particularly focusing on supporting ethnic minorities and refugee communities connect with the club through fun and interactive football sessions. Weekly we will have sessions at facilities in the area (Edenderry, Newbridge and Annaclone) to engage local kids and then another session at one of our central venues (Havelock, St Patrick's College or Cheney Park) for the kids to interact with other members.
How we’ll spend the money raised
With your help we will run programmes for inhabitants of rural communities to experience what we can offer as a club. This will include some sessions stages in their immediate locality, leading to attendance at our main sessions and increased integration with our existing members.
If the children need equipment we will provide it, if they need transport we will provide it, if the need friendships we will aim to forge them.
- Facility Hire: £2,400
- 2 venues (Newbridge and Annaclone) x 4 hours per week x 6 weeks at £50p/h
- Coaching: £2,400
- 4 coaches x 4 hours per week x 6 weeks x £25p/h (aim to keep one coach consistent at each venue and rotate others to build up a familarity with our entire club)
- Project specific equipment: £1,040
- 48 balls, 8 sets of small cones, 8 sets of large cones, 4 sets of flat markers, 8 sets of bibs, 16 nets, 4 rebound nets, being ordered (*Hope to leave a legacy and build a partnership by leaving in each venue)
- Transportations costs: £960
- Two taxis to 2 venues every week for 6 weeks at £40 per return journey
- Participation kit: £1,000 (club shirts, shorts and socks for each participant so that they look the same as the other kids who play for the club.
Community impact
We see this programme as having a massive impact on a rapidly expanding diverse community. It will enable those who are new to this place to learn more about this place and enable them to forge friendships through our sport with other kids who are in the early stages of settling into the community.
We hope it will not only be the children who will benefit but also their wider families as our club offers a community space where they can meet a wider diaspora of people who can assist them with any settlement anxiety which they might be experiencing.
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!