Community Foundation
Bradford City FC
Ages
Abilities
Of the community
ALL
Bantams in the community
Womens and Girls Football Development Programme
FFD Womens and Girls Programme
Female Football Participation passes 30,000 with the Football League.
Over 30,000 women and girls have starting playing football in the past two year including Bradford City Womens and Girls Programme. The Football League Trusts Female Football Development programme (FFD) is run by 55 clubs across the country including Bradford City Community Foundation and aims to get women and girls playing the game. Perhaps more importantly the figures also reveal that over 97% of the women and girls who have been introduced to football have continued to be involved.
Nicol Meredith, Female Football Officer with The Football League Trust, comments, “Getting so many girls involved in the programme that are new to football and the massive retention rates shows the power that football clubs have in their communities. The programme focuses on having fun as well as the social and health benefits of playing football.
The programme is funded by The FA and Sport England and was launched in 2013 to get women and girls aged 14 and over to start, and continue, playing football using the reach Football League Trusts and Premier League to deliver at grassroots. This is the first time that all four organisations have worked on a project of this kind. It was announced over the summer that due to the success of the first two years of the scheme more than £3,700,000 of joint FA and Sport England investment will be allocated to the programme by July 2016.
If you are involved in a womens and girls football team 14+ or work at an upper school please contact us. We are currenlty looking to set up a girls Satellite Club where sessions will be based at Thornton Grammar School and Hanson School, these sessions will run on an after school basis, with links to local junior football clubs. We will be looking for year 9s and above to come along to our sessions the cost will be FREE so it’s a turn up and play session. If anyone has any questions or wants more information please contact Joe Bray 07805465819.
Another success of the programme is that participation among minority ethnic groups in the FFD programme is over 20%. Nicol, continues “Football has an amazing power to break down all kinds of barriers. As well as getting hard to reach groups involved in the game our sustained approach to developing female participation is getting more women in key positions at professional Football
To learn more about Bradford City's Female Football Development programme, and how you can get involved with the upcoming sessions please email [email protected] or ring 01274 706850