Dalkeith Thistle Community F.C. from the SFA South East region, were recently awarded £500 funding from The SFP Trust’s Club Development Grant scheme. The initiative, funded by the SFP Trust in partnership with The Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust and The Clydesdale Bank was developed to assist grassroots clubs in three specific areas – to increase participation by adding a new team to a club’s existing membership; to improve, enhance and sustain existing team activity through the purchase of new training equipment and/or funding First Aid training for coaches or thirdly to support Coach Education.
Dalkeith Thistle Community F.C., who were recently awarded SFA Legacy status, had a vision at the start of 2016 that by 2019 the club would be looking to have a girls’ team playing at every age group within the SWF Leagues and eventually would be able to develop a ladies team. The club are well on their way to achieving this aim as they already have girls’ teams operating at Under-9, Under-11, Under-13 and Under-15 level.
The photograph here shows the Under-13 girls in their new red away kit for next season, which was funded using part of the award received from The SFP Trust. The remaining funds were used to produce leaflets to promote and increase the size of the girls’ section across all age groups. Ann Phillips, Club Secretary commented “This award was a massive boost for the club. We are proud to be developing girl’s footballing talent and this funding has gone a long way in helping to achieve this. Hopefully, we can continue to encourage more girls from the community to get involved”.