The funding from the SFP Community Initiative award will allow East Fife Youth Academy to deliver a new programme offering an early introduction to football, targeted at nursery and primary 1 children and for many this will be their first step into the world of sport. Through their “Wee Fifers” programme, the Academy hope to capture the imagination of the children and inspire them to develop active lifestyles as they grow. The programme will complement the Curriculum for Excellence and will focus on health and wellbeing, numeracy and literacy, encouraging participants to form friendships, build teamwork and aid them in developing good balance, co-ordination and agility. EFYA have a target to work with 1,200 children between the ages of three and six for a minimum of 5 weeks and it is hoped that this will help the participating schools become familiar with the East Fife brand and see them engage in other club projects. The project will operate on 4 blocks throughout the academic year and each block will finish with a mini festival at the stadium – parents and family members will be invited along to watch these matches and by seeing the positive effect sport has on their children, parents will hopefully be encouraged to allow their kids to join the academy on a regular basis and may even become volunteers themselves. Lorna McAuley, Head of the Academy and Community Development worker said “Children from these classes will be invited to tour our stadium and meet some of the staff. Fun games will be played in different parts of the stadium and this will give the children the chance to become familiar with the coaches and football environment. They will take part in simple numeracy games using football and health as the theme and in the following weeks, coaches will attend classes within the school environment to work on basic skills such as dribbling and passing. If we can catch children’s attention at an early age, they will hopefully go on to play football for many years to come, allowing the youth academy to keep growing – and who knows, one day they may even play for East Fife F.C. – there is no greater privilege for the club than to see one of their own young players make it through to the first team.”