The Scottish Football Partnership Trust (SFPT) has once again teamed up with The Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust (KFCT) to put together a new funding strand for 2022 which will see another 20 community football clubs/organisations provided with a lifesaving defibrillator. Over the last few years, 48 devices have already been awarded to clubs/organisations and this new funding will see that total rise to 68.
In 2015, Parliament passed the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 giving more rights to community bodies to take over land and buildings in public ownership through asset transfer. Since then, many grassroots community football clubs and organisations across all parts of Scotland have benefitted from these new rights and have been able to take over football pitches and pavilions via Community Asset Transfer. Essentially these football clubs have evolved into becoming community service and facility providers and in recognition of this, the SFPT and the KFCT were keen to assist safeguard the health and wellbeing of players, coaches, parents, grandparents and other members of the wider community who attend these facilities on a weekly basis.
Vale of Leven Academy were recently awarded a defibrillator to help safeguard the users of Millburn Park in Alexandria. Alex Lacy from the club commented “We would like to thank The Scottish Football Partnership Trust and the Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust for providing our club with a Defibrillator. The weekly footfall at Millburn Park reaches almost 360 and this life-saving equipment will help safeguard all these users as well as visiting teams and their coaches on matchday. We always have the gate open on a Saturday and the unit will also benefit anyone using the cycle path and, with the better weather coming in, some of the youth teams train at Millburn therefore increasing the amount of people protected on a weekly basis.” Here you can see the Vale of Leven 2006 team with their new defibrillator.
British Heart Foundation – Why defibrillators for your community are important
“Communities can play a big part in creating a nation of life savers. Having a defibrillator in your community and training people in CPR means that more people will know what to do when someone has a cardiac arrest.”
Does my community need a defibrillator?
“Yes, your community needs a defibrillator. For every minute someone is in cardiac arrest without CPR and access to a defibrillator, their chance of survival drops by up to 10%.
Having access to a defibrillator in an emergency can be lifesaving, especially in rural areas where ambulance response times may be longer.”
What are the benefits of having a defibrillator in my community?
“Less than 1 in 10 people in the UK survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This has been partly attributed to two factors that communities can change:
- There aren’t enough people prepared to perform CPR when someone has a cardiac arrest
- There aren’t enough defibrillators
By having a defibrillator in your community and by training people in CPR, you can play an important part in saving more lives.”
*Since 2012, The Scottish Football Partnership and Trust has invested over £200,000 in upskilling around 2,250 coach volunteers in Sports First Aid in conjunction with the Hampden Sports Clinic.