Who are we?
Heathfield & Waldron RFC are a grassroots community rugby club, founded in 1979 with the aim of making good quality rugby accessible for all in the local area. We have experienced lots of growth, particularly in the growing ladies and girls teams and now have teams from all ages. Within our playing sections we have 2 mens teams and 2 women's teams, mini, junior and colts. This means that our clubhouse is no longer fit for purpose.
What are we doing?
In order to conform to the most up to date safeguarding practices we are needing to enhance our facilities in order to ensure equality and accessibility for all. This fits in with the long term vision of H&WRFC being accessible and inclusive for all with the RFU core values at heart.
Our approved plans are:
- Two new changing rooms with showering facilities to enable female and male players to change concurrently and ensure that we have changing provision for all teams concurrently.
- A larger social space to cater for our growing membership, with improved kitchen and cellar facilities to create a well-loved community space at H&WRFC.
- A committee room for admin and club strategy, which will also double as a space for classroom style lessons, allowing the club to have a wider impact and stronger governance.
- New toilet facilities for females in order to make the club more inclusive.
- RFU compliant referee changing facilities to enable all referees to have access to the clubhouse, whether they are male, female or youth referees needing their own spaces. The plans will allow us to have space for all. The club has a long term vision to promote youth referees and match officials within the game and new facilities will allow us to achieve this.
- Facilities that are more accessible for disabled people, including toilets and complete step-free access to all areas of the clubhouse.
- Repurposed spaces for physio and medical facilities.
Why are we Crowdfunding?
Our project needs funds to ensure that all phases of the development can be completed, these will consist of grants, donations, this crowdfunding campaign and other fundraising events. Our crowdfunding campaign will run alongside the beginning of the first phase of construction and will ensure the implementation of the first phases of the project.
We hope that by crowdfunding we can raise awareness for the project amongst both the club and the wider community impacted by the changes.
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 across our social media platforms and promote your business to our members.
4. 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. The club will support you in this and setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details.