Stenhousemuir FC’s Community arm was presented with the Scottish FA Quality Mark Development Award by Andrew Gilchrist, Scottish FA Central Region Manager before Stenhousemuir FC’s first home game of the season.

 

 

The Award, part of the Quality Mark Accreditation Scheme run by the Scottish FA in partnership with McDonald’s and The Big Lottery Fund, recognises pro-active clubs and schools working to increase youth and community participation.

 

 

Clubs and schools receive the award after meeting standards in areas such as coach and player development, management, administration, welfare and planning.

 

 

The community teams formed a guard of honour for the first team players as they took to the pitch for their first home game, against Arbroath on Saturday 13th August and the Certificate was presented to Martin McNairney Club Chairman and Jamie Swinney, Martyn Buckie and Paul Wilson from the Community teams.

 

 

There are three Quality Mark categories - Standard, Development, and Community. So far more than 100 clubs and schools have achieved accreditation over the three categories, and over 4,000 coaches have benefited from coach education and first aid training.

 

 

McDonald’s, Scottish FA’s community partner since 2002, will help to attract 13,000 new volunteers and 10,000 new coaches by 2014, as well as supporting 600 clubs and 52,000 players through new and existing football networks.

 

Through the Quality Mark Accreditation Scheme, McDonald’s and the Scottish FA aim to provide support to grassroots clubs and schools across Scotland as they strive to broaden youth and community participation and to enhance player, coach and volunteer development.

 

 

The Quality Mark scheme is supported by the Big Lottery Fund, which contributes to the employment of all Scottish FA club development staff, as well as discounted coach education and first aid courses for grassroots volunteers. The Big Lottery Fund is a key Scottish FA partner, contributing £6m to the delivery of the Scottish FA Youth Action Plan.

 

 

For further information on the Scottish FA Quality Mark

programme, please visit www.scottishfa.co.uk/footballdevelopment