UEFA Grassroots Week takes place from 23- 30 September 2017 in conjunction with the European Commission Week of Sport, aiming to encourage and inspire participation in all forms of football.
Throughout this week the Scottish FA will be highlighting the work they do in local communities across Scotland and showing why football matters to so many people.
The Scottish FA possesses a flourishing grassroots programme across six regions providing a variety of activities.
The scale and breadth of opportunities for people across Scotland has grown greatly over the last 10 years, when the Scottish FA regions were established.
They now work with and support a range of different clubs and organisations across the country to provide football for people from varying ages and backgrounds.
The recently developed the One National Plan which outlines the aims of grassroots football in Scotland with the ultimate goal of creating football for life for people of all age groups.
To realise that ambition, there are a number of different objectives that the Scottish FA deliver to achieve this goal.
As part of Clubs for Communities the Scottish FA deliver a Quality Mark Award Scheme which supports clubs to put a strategy in place to fulfill their ambitions.
As part of Skills for Life, we are working with the Scottish Government’s programme Cashback for Communities.
The highly regarded ‘School of Football’ programme operates to support young people with their transition from primary to secondary schools by introducing football every day and improving their attainment through achieving an SVQ.
There are also a number of Football for All initiatives including the Tesco Bank Football Challenge which introduces 20,000 primary school children across the country each year to a healthy and active lifestyle using the power of sport.
At grassroots level, the Scottish FA also have developed a new Para-Football development plan, ‘Playability’.
This plan aims to provide opportunities for people who are unable to play mainstream football through a disability using initiatives such as ‘Frame Football’.
With Grassroots Week under way we are giving you the chance to win a bag of balls for your organisation so send a picture to the Scottish FA Twitter account showing you with your ‘thumbs up for grassroots week’.
To get involved with the number of exciting projects happening across Scotland, contact your local region.