Thorn Athletic Community Football Club from the Scottish FA West Region were delighted to receive an award of £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.
Thorn Athletic CFC from Johnstone in Renfrewshire opted to use their award to support the establishment of a new girls’ section. This fantastic community club, which has over 185 players supported by 38 coaches, were keen to continue the growth of football in the area with the introduction of a new girls’ team. The award will also support First Aid training for the two new coaches appointed to this team, which has already attracted more than 20 participants. Mark McGee, Secretary at Thorn Athletic CFC commented “We were delighted to receive funding from The Scottish Football Partnership Trust and The KFCT, which will cover the start-up costs for our new girls section and get them playing soon. The girls are excited to get going after a few months of training and hopefully in a couple of weeks they’ll be playing their first ever games.”