Local people in Bracknell will be putting on their boots following a £5,000 Grow the Game grant, from the Football Foundation.
The grant will allow Red Ten FC to create three new teams over the next two years for girls and ladies at Under-12 and Under-16 level, as well as an adults’ team. The funding will also allow three coaches to gain qualifications.
Local MP Dr Phillip Lee attended an event and training session held by Red Ten FC to celebrate the funding received from the Football Foundation.
The core objective of the Football Foundation’s Grow the Game’s programme is to increase participation and enable more people to play our national game through supporting the development of grassroots clubs. The programme is delivered in partnership with all of the 46 County FAs and funded by The FA and Government.
So far Grow the Game has awarded 900 separate grants worth around £4.3m to grassroots football clubs. Analysis of the monitoring and evaluation so far predicts that this will result in the creation of 3,716 brand new football teams competing in FA-affiliated leagues, 70,489 new players participating each week and 14,111 new qualifications or courses being completed.
The key strength of Grow the Game is that its participation increases are sustainable rather than transient. Its grants create a solid infrastructure of teams and newly-trained coaches in which new people can start playing the sport, rather than simply providing temporary activity sessions, which are then vulnerable to drops in participation once the programme ends.
The Football Foundation is the country’s largest sports charity, launched in 2000 and funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government (via Sport England). Since then it has awarded around 8,000 grants worth more than £420m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520m.
Dr Phillip Lee, MP for Bracknell, said: “It is fantastic that Red Ten Football Club have received this funding from the Football Foundation. This money will not only benefit the club but the community as a whole as there will be more opportunities for participation.”
Stephen Satterly, Red Ten chairman, said: “This grant is fantastic for us. We are now able to add girls’ and ladies’ football teams to our club, and will also enable us to ensure that our coaches are qualified, which will benefit the players massively.
"We will also now be able to enter the team into the Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Inclusive (BOBi) league, which is our local inclusion league. All of this would not be possible without the funding from the Football Foundation.”
Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “I congratulate Red Ten FC for receiving this Grow the Game grant, which will increase sport participation and support football development in the region. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Berks & Bucks FA for their help in making this happen.
“The new teams and players generated by the Grow the Game scheme, since its launch three years ago, will go a long way towards helping The FA to achieve its growth target of 150,000 new participants by 2013. It is also helping government and Sport England get more people engaging in regular sport.
“The Football Foundation is committed – with funding provided by the Premier League, The FA and Government – to improve grassroots community sporting provision and help make this legacy vision a reality.”
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