The Pars Foundation, from the SFA East Region, were awarded £500 from The SFP Trust’s 2019 Club Development Grant scheme. The initiative, funded by the SFP Trust in partnership with The Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust, 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.
The Foundation opted to use their grant to support the start-up costs for a new girls’ section for players aged 5 to 9 years old. The Pars will run an all-year round participation programme, deliver taster sessions in local schools to recruit new players and deliver a parents’ meeting to recruit new volunteers. Club & Community Development Officer, Matthew Solomon said “We currently have a total of 9 girls taking part who have never played before, which is fantastic! Numbers look like they will continue to grow and we look forward to welcoming new players to our girls’ soccer centre. The picture here shows some of the girls at the club’s SSE Lisa Evans Soccer Centre last Monday evening. Our thanks must go to the SFP Trust and The Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust for this funding.”