Who are we?
We are a grassroots club with many volunteers who support the club and teams. Essington AFC set up in 2018 with a vision to provide football opportunities for children no matter on their level of ability. The club has extended since 2018 with teams ranging from under 8’s to under 18’s including a female team. With the clubs vision to provide opportunity to children we linked with the Down Syndrome Awareness Club in early 2024 and Essington DSA was lauched.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The club has recently taken over a footballl facility which had lacked love and attention over the past 30 years resulting in its disrepair. However the club wasn’t fazed by this and remain dedicated to providing football opportunities for children and young adults to take part in sport and the benefits gained from playing sport.
At present the current disrepair doesn’t provide a good experience for our teams or visiting teams due to the high level of disrepair and recent vandalism. The changing facilities have suffered from attacks of vandalism resulting in windows being smashed and having to be boarded up. This doesn’t create a conducive environment for match talks and preparation and make the rooms cold during colder months/ weather.
At present the shower facilities are communal which we want to provide a private space for players to shower privately if they wish. In addition this change will also allow the expansion of the female section which is lacking at present.
Vandalism occurred during the merger of the clubs and the copper tank was stolen from the away changing rooms impacting experience and facilities provided to visiting teams. Again these shower facilities need to be renovated and separated to provide private shower facilities.
There are two cabins on site at present which are in total disrepair. The vision is to renovate these to provide an on-site cafe and communal area for our teams to enjoy and provide a facility that the local community can use.
The storage facility on-site has also been left in disrepair which is leading to equipment being damage and ruined as a result of the water leaks.
The club is committed to providing football opportunity for all children irrelevant of ability and we want to ensure the facilities wheelchair accessible and disability friendly because they aren‘t at present.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The majority of the money we are hoping to raise will support the renovation of the changing room facilities and toilets to bring them up to the expected standard. This renovation will uphold and maintain health, safety and hygiene standards expected of these facilities. The renovation will include building of shower cubicles, replacing flooring, lighting, installing a new drainage system in the shower area to prevent flooding. As well as installing two male toilets, urinals, two sinks and a new drainage system.
Shower cubicles , heater tank, flooring and toilet will be installed in the away changing rooms because at present the toilet is shared with the communal male toilet.
The refs room will have a new shower cubicle and flooring throughout.
30% of the monies raised and will support the necessary cabin renovations including boarding the cabins walls, painting , building a ramp for easier accessibility for everyone, upgrading the food preparation areas.
Any remaining funds left after the main renovations will support the purchase of the a new storage container to help ensure our ground equipment and machinery is protected .
Community impact
Following renovation we want to open up and attract more of the local community use the facilities. Ther are many elderly residents who live local and we want to provide recreational activities for them to meet and communicate with others and combat isolation and loneliness. We are aware that community facilities are reducing and we have the vision that the renovated cabins will provide accessible facilities for clubs, meetings etc.
Other grassroots football clubs use our facilities due to the limited football facilities available, thus the renovations will provide wider clubs/teams with more hygienic and accessible facilities. Whilst supporting the clubs ethos of providing access to football irrelevant of ability and capability.
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!