Falkirk Ladies Football Club were recently awarded a grant of £1000 by the new 2014 Communities grant fund. 2014 Communities is a new micro grants programme, offering local sports clubs, voluntary and community organisations, community councils and schools grants of £300 to £1,000 to support and stimulate grass roots involvement in sport and physical activity.
Falkirk Ladies have devised an innovative programme that is designed to create a new age-group within their club and to also train new volunteers at the same time to work with the new girls. Club Administrator, Alison Mackie, worked with one of Falkirk Council’s Active School Co-ordinators, Kirsty Wallace, to set up a series of school visits where players from the Falkirk Ladies Senior team will go out into 6 local Primary Schools. Once there the players will work with girls in P5-P7 for 4 weeks and then the girls are invited to join the existing teams within the club or join the new Under-11 team.
The Senior Ladies are also going through Coach Education courses and support for the new voluntary work that they are undertaking. After the school visits are finished then these players will also support the exisiting Youth teams and coach the new U11 team.
The 2014 lottery fund has supported this programme by providing support for the volunteer coaches, providing funding to buy equipment to train with and to purchase a set of strips for the new team to play in. The funding lasts for a six month period and the first set of visits took place in March at Bainsford and Bantaskin Primary Schools with over 35 girls benefitting from the coaching. 4 additional schools will receive coaching in May and June.
Club Administrator, Alison Mackie, said “We are very grateful for the grant that the 2014 Communities has given us as it has allowed us to introduce a new group of players to not only football but to our club. It has also allowed us to support some of our 18/19 year old players into coaching and this gives us a new generation of volunteers.”
For further information on how to get involved with our clun visit www.falkirkladiesfc.com