Who are we?
We are a tennis and squash club located in North London, passionate about improving young people's access to sports. We have seven squash courts and an extensive junior and adult coaching programme, as well as a school outreach programme. We had not been able to establish a girls only coaching programme until now due to limited coaching capacity.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Even though squash is recognised as one of the healthiest sports, England Squash has highlighted that only 13% of weekly squash players are female. Girls don’t participate in the sport as often as boys due to difficulties accessing club facilities or paying for squash lessons, limited female coaches, lack of girls only coaching groups, and the lack of girls only events and tournaments (Yorkshire Squash).
We created the Girls Love Squash programme to offer more opportunities for girls who would like to learn how to play squash, but we need your help to get it off the ground! Our aim is to raise £3100 to purchase squash equipment, train new female coaches and offer subsidised lessons for girls in three Boroughs.
How we’ll spend the money raised
- Equipment: We need new rackets, balls and rebound walls to expand our current junior coaching programme by adding several girls only groups.
- We need to train new coaches to ensure we are able to cope with the increased demand and ensure sustainability. Each Level 1 coaching course costs £150.
- We would like to get new t-shirts for the coaches and girls joining the groups to develop a team mindset and make sure the girls feel included.
- We would like to keep player fees as low as possible to ensure that cost is never a barrier for participation.
- We want to create additional subsidised sessions for girls who cannot afford the fees of group coaching, making squash accessible to all!
Community impact
The Girls Love Squash programme has the potential to impact over 2000 girls in three London Boroughs in its first two years of operation. As the new female coaches trained through the programme will generate more coaching capacity in our region, the impact is likely to span beyond our club and could help other clubs in the North London area experiencing staff shortages. The plan is to roll out our girls only coaching model to other clubs, with the Oakleigh Park Tennis & Squash Club starting later in 2025. Our long-term goal is to establish an active network of clubs that can deliver girls only coaching groups with female coaches across all levels of squash development (beginners, intermediates and advanced) as well as performance groups (for girls interested in competition).
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!