More Places to Play for Local Children

Aim

Help us create more places to play by equipping local pitches for junior and girls' football as Sturry Kings and our community grow.

More Places to Play

Sturry Kings FC is a volunteer-led grassroots football club serving Sturry, Hersden, Canterbury and the surrounding communities.

Today, more than 200 children play football with us across girls', boys' and mixed teams from Reception age through to U16.

Every session, match and team is made possible by volunteer coaches, committee members and parents giving up their time to create somewhere local children can play, make friends, stay active and feel part of a team.

Our club is growing

More children want to play football with us every season.

Our girls' football provision is growing particularly quickly, with new teams forming and more girls moving into dedicated competitive football.

At the same time, the communities around Sturry and Hersden are expanding.

Almost 1,900 new homes are planned or being developed across major schemes in the local area, meaning significantly more families will be living here in the coming years.

The challenge is simple: We have more players, but we do not have a permanent home - Sturry Kings has no ground of its own.

Instead, we hire pitches and training facilities across the area and work constantly to find enough space for our teams.

As we secure additional places to play, we then need the equipment to make those spaces suitable for junior football.

Portable goals. Nets. Footballs. Training equipment. First-aid resources.

At the moment, much of that equipment spends the week in coaches' garages, sheds and car boots before being transported around the area.

Why we are crowdfunding

We want to raise £15,000 to create more usable playing capacity for local children and start putting some basic infrastructure around a club that has grown far beyond its original size.

The money raised will help us invest in equipment that can be shared across multiple teams and venues, including:

• portable junior football goals and nets
• footballs and match equipment
• cones, bibs and training aids
• first-aid and safety equipment
• secure equipment storage
• practical equipment needed to move and manage shared resources between venues

Our priority is to buy durable equipment that will benefit hundreds of children over multiple seasons.

A small club hub

We also have a longer-term idea we would love to make possible.

One of the sites we hope to use more regularly is Hersden Recreation Ground.

There is currently an old storage container at the site which is no longer suitable for secure club use.

Subject to the necessary discussions and permissions with the landowner and relevant organisations, our ambition would be to replace or upgrade this with a secure, vandal-resistant Sturry Kings Club Hub.

It would not be a clubhouse in the traditional sense.

But it could become something incredibly useful.

A secure place to store goals, balls and training equipment.

A home for our boot and kit exchange, helping families reuse good-quality football equipment and reducing the cost of playing.

A simple matchday point where volunteers could provide teas and coffees.

And, perhaps most importantly, a small physical base that begins to give a currently homeless football club a sense of home.

This is an ambition, not a promise

We do not yet have permission to replace the existing container, so we want to be completely transparent.

Any permanent installation would depend on landowner approval and any planning or other permissions required.

If that element cannot proceed immediately, the money raised will still be used to achieve the central purpose of this campaign: creating more places for local children to play football by investing in portable equipment, storage and playing capacity.

Nothing raised will be wasted.

How the money could be used

Our working budget is approximately:

£5,000
Portable junior goals and nets for additional playing spaces

£2,000
Footballs, match equipment, training aids and first-aid resources

£5,000
Secure storage or a future club hub, subject to site permissions

£2,000
Delivery, installation, shelving, storage equipment and associated setup costs

£1,000
Contingency and additional shared equipment

Where grants or other funding cover a specific item, Crowdfunder money will be redirected to another eligible part of the project so that expenditure is not duplicated.

Why this matters

This project is about much more than football equipment.

Every additional playing space we can bring into use gives another group of children somewhere to go.

Somewhere to be active.

Somewhere to make friends.

Somewhere to build confidence.

Somewhere to feel that they belong.

Grassroots football creates relationships not just between players, but between families, coaches and communities.

For many children, their football team becomes one of the strongest community connections they have.

Growing girls' football

One of the areas we are most excited about is the growth of girls' football.

We are creating more opportunities for girls to start playing at a young age and to progress from mixed football into dedicated girls' teams.

This season brings another new competitive girls' team into the club.

Creating more playing capacity means we can continue forming teams rather than reaching the point where lack of pitches or equipment prevents us from saying yes to another group of children.

A growing community needs places to belong

The housing growth around Sturry and Hersden means demand for local clubs, activities and facilities will only increase.

We want to make sure grassroots sport grows alongside the community.

Sturry Kings already supports more than 200 children.

Our job now is to make sure the infrastructure around the club catches up.

Our longer-term goal

Ultimately, Sturry Kings wants a permanent home.

A place where our teams can train and play.

A place where equipment can be stored properly.

A place families identify with the club.

A place future generations of local children can grow up playing football.

We know that will not happen overnight.

This campaign is about taking the next practical step.

Help us create more places to play

There are four simple ways you can support the project:

1. Make a pledge.
Every contribution brings us closer to equipping another pitch or improving the infrastructure around the club.

2. Share our campaign.
Send the page to friends, family, neighbours and local businesses. Reaching more people gives us the best possible chance of succeeding.

3. Support us as a local business.
Businesses can pledge directly, offer equipment or services, donate rewards or speak to us about becoming a Community Partner.

4. Fundraise with us.
Run a sponsored event, challenge or activity and help us raise part of the target.

We have the players | We have the volunteers (although the more the merrier!)

Now we need the places and equipment that allow them to keep playing.

Help us create more places to play, more opportunities to belong, and the beginnings of a home for grassroots football in our community.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 18th November 2026 at 1:19pm