Sport Northern Ireland Project Re-Boot: Activate has provided £5,000 of match funding
Strabane AFC "This Girl Can" Programme
Strabane, Derry and Strabane, United Kingdom
Aim
"This Girl Can" is an innovative new initiative delivered by Strabane AFC, to encourage more females into playing football and coaching.
Who are we?
We are a voluntary Community Amateur Sports Club based in Strabane, that caters for the needs of hundreds of people of all ages from Strabane and surrounding areas on a weekly basis through our football coaching programmes, and wider community initiatives.
The Club participate in various leagues and tournaments such as the Northern Ireland Intermediate League, the Derry & District Youth Leagues at various age groups and the North West Saturday Morning League and all their associated cups. We also compete in the Foyle Cup at youth level.
We start from under 6 years old, with our First Touch Development Centre which is our FUNdementals programme. We have programmes running nearly every day of the week Monday to Friday, and then matches Saturday and Sunday.
All of our youth programmes are focused on child friendly activities and development, stimulating football and sport, fun, educational and challenging for all.
Further to the day to day activities of our club we are in the advanced stages of developing a sports facility in Strabane- with the aim of providing shared community sporting facilities. We have identified land to build and will begin this ambitious project when funding is secured.
We are currently working with a number of agencies and partners to ensure the completion and success of this ambitious project.
This major capital project shows our ambition in delivering large scale projects for our town, and improving the opportunities for people currently living in Strabane and surrounding areas.
Community impact
Our Club is much more than just a football Club. We have wider community benefits in Strabane considering our specific focus on community empowerment. We consider it our responsibility as a significant provider of sporting, health and wellbeing activity in the town that we continue to strive towards stronger community relationships and provide opportunities for our members, and wider community.
For example, during Covid19 we delivered home coaching packs for the community which ensured young people and families could keep active during prolonged lockdowns.
We have also delivered successful Children in Need programmes in recent years which involved working with hard to reach teenagers and providing them with personal development pathways into coaching, sport and further education.
We also deliver older persons sporting programmes such as walking football for older members of our community.
We provide expert coaching daily to all who attend our programmes, as well as encourage wider families to get involved with volunteering opportunities. This ensures that our Club has a wider impact far beyond just football!
How Covid19 affected our Club
We were unable to deliver our programmes. We were unable to fundraise. We lost volunteers and members because of the pandemic. We were unable to advance our Capital project. Many of our members and families missed out on 2+ years of coaching development as well as missed out on social interaction which has led to health issues such as mental health and physical challenges such as loss of fitness and weight gain.
Before the Covid19 pandemic, we were really looking to kick on with our female coaching programme and to develop our female section of the Club. However, Covid19 really restricted this and we are only now looking to get the female Club, players and coaching going. Crowdfunding will really help us achieve this through our "This Girl Can" initiative now in 2023.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding will really help us develop new innovative programmes and initiatives to help us develop fully our female coaching programme now in 2023. Crowdfunding allows us to launch and deliver "This Girl Can" initiative ASAP once funding is raised.
"This Girl Can" is an initiative were we want to promote our Club to more females, work with Strabane Netball Club to encourage more females to take up leisure football, encourage more females to volunteer within the Club and develop into coaches (mums of our younger members, sisters etc).
Crowdfunding specifically will be used for:
- Create new additional weekly coaching programmes for girls 10 years upwards. This will include "Come Try" sessions from March, as well as structured teams across age groups entered into leagues and competitions as numbers grow.
- To purchase equipment such as balls, bibs, cones, and agility ladders to support the delivery of these football sessions for girls. Funding will reduce the costs for players and their families, reducing barriers to participation in sport in Strabane.
- Provide a new coaching pathway within the club for female volunteers. Funding will enable female coaches to upskill through IFA foundation courses, as well as move up through the coaching pathway ladder.
- Encourage more coach volunteers into the Club, having lost volunteers during the pandemic.
- Provide more marketing for the Club to promote our female sections and our "This Girl Can" programme. Such as social media, flyers, club branding for our female sections etc.
- Purchase kits for female teams so they can participate in matches going forward.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Because of the great support we have, our volunteers and members and Sport NI contribution, we feel that we can aim to raise £8,335 for our "This Girl Can" initiative.
Funding will go towards the following items which will allow us to launch and deliver "This Girl Can" and therefore develop female sporting opportunities in Strabane.
- Facility Hire for new football sessions for girls in Strabane. A minimum of 200 hours football will be provided for females through "This Girl Can" @ facility hire costs of £30 per hour x 220 hours= £6,000.
- Sports equipment. We will purchase new footballs, bibs, cones, agility ladders, balance beams, coordination equipment @ £1,000 (multi skills bags x 4).
- Team kits for female players @ £1,500
- Coach Education Budget for female coaching pathways @ £1,500
How you can play your part
There are a few 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. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!
This project successfully funded on 14th April 2023