Female Hockey Development

Aim

Our project aims to rebuild our female members of the club after the Covid pandemic through playing and non playing opportunities.

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Who are we?

Cookstown Hockey Club are a mixed gender sports club with 4 senior Mens teams, 1 Senior ladies team with underage in both sexes from u11 to u15. Since 2020 and the effects of Covid-19, our females numbers have reduced. Our ex and current players were massively affected physical and mentally during the pandemic and the return to sport has shown us how much sport can have an impact on all-round well being. Our key project goals for this crowdfunding opportunity are focused on our community

The Project 

• Firstly we will create our Mums and Minis program to give parents the opportunity to play hockey socially with their children. Over the course of 6 weeks we can invite mothers, ex players and beginners to enjoy some fun hockey with their children. We will provide all the equipment including sticks and balls, along with qualified coaches to run the sessions. 
• Next we can create a "social XI" to give the ex players, mothers and up and coming  players an opportunity to play 11 aside hockey without the constraints of a league season. This will follow on from the 6 week program with any interested player having the opportunity to continue their hockey with the club until the summer and into the new season. We hope to be able to continue this part of the program for a further 8 weeks. The social XI will also require 11 aside specific equipment along with some travel costs to away games. 
• Along aside our playing side, we want to create a family HUB in our Clubhouse, with a children's area. This area would pilot over the duration of the whole program Mums and minis program with the hope to continue this area for the rest of the season and into the next, providing a safe environment to encourage mothers back to the club as a player or as a partner of male players. 

 With the 3 types of initiative we believe we can raise our female members, while having an outlet to promote physical and metal wellbeing with other family members. 

Community impact

Hockey has always been a part of our local community as it helps to benefit their physical, social and mental wellbeing. Through Covid-19, we have realised the importance of sport, hockey and our club as an outlet for anyone in the local area. Our facilities are used by our local secondary and primary schools, other sports clubs and community groups on a daily basis, with our link with Cookstown High school going back over 60 years.

Why are we crowdfunding?

All sports clubs have been affected financially by the pandemic. As a sport's club and by default a community group our affiliation fees are one of the lowest across Ulster with finances never being a barrier to our sport. The club will have different payment plans for any households struggling to pay for their affiliation or children’s fees. Over the pandemic period our income reduced dramatically with little incoming fees, however we still had outgoings such as electric, fuel, other utility along with Ulster and Irish Hockey affiliation fees. 

The project over 3 initiatives would struggle to support all members involved and we believer running this new program will require further fundraising above and beyond our current reach. We feel it is  important our club continue to fundraise so all our 5 of our senior teams, social teams and non playing members continue to get the support and excellent services from the club. Generating additional funding is the only way of ensuring that our club can activity engage with our community with minimal expense and realize our community goals shown above.

How we will spend any funds raised 

• buying adapted equipment for young people, beginners and people with physical and mental disabilities. 
• Subsidizing aspiring coaches and umpires through any certified course of workshop. eg Safeguarding, Level 1 
• Help to contribute towards travel cost for our Social team
• Help contribute towards building a safe and fun play area for children
• help contribute towards building a safe shelter pitch side for parents and young children during bad weather at sessions (our clubhouse is 700 meters from playing facilities)

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!

This project successfully funded on 28th June 2023