Projects

Cheetham Hill Sports Club

Completed: 2022
Location: Manchester
Region: North West
Other local partners: Barclays Community Football Fund, Dulux, Sport England, Travis Perkins, GAP

About the project

After the Lionesses semi-final win in 2022’s monumental Women’s Euros campaign, Ian Wright publicly urged for the tournament to create a lasting legacy for women’s football: ‘If there’s no legacy after this, then what are we doing? Girls should be able to play [football].’ 

The project:

Our work at Cheetham Hill Sports Club brings this legacy to life, with the help of the Barclays Community Football Fund and match-funding from Sport England. Based in Greater Manchester, the club, with inclusivity at its heart, aims to promote, develop, and facilitate sports at all ages and levels within the wider community. Though the club currently have three active female football teams, prior to this project, the site had no dedicated female changing facilities. 

The young people: 16 young volunteers from organisations including Timeout Homes, Active Tameside, Navigators and Elms Bank College

The impact:

  • Enabled a large programme of works to kickstart at the club, to have a huge impact on the experience for women and girls across all of the sports at the club
  • We created stud walls to separate current changing and shower facilities to create safe, separate female and disabled facilities to match the male amenities, then plasterboarded and plastered 
  • Cabinets for sink bases to be mounted on to were built, as well as painting and decorating the corridor and lobby area
  • We also worked with local artist, Myro Doodles, to transform their flaking pitch-side storage container into a beautiful bespoke mural with the help of our young people and Dulux’s Metalshield paint – to inspire conversations and the next generation, on the tools and on the pitch
  • These facilities will accommodate the club’s growing female sports teams, giving approximately 50 girls a safe space to change and a deeper sense of belonging to their local football club and community
  • The programme of works to the changing rooms continues under the leadership of the club committee, a dedicated group of local volunteers supporting the club. Works will include lowering the roof and insulating the building, electrics and fitting the new disabled and female shower and toilet facilities
  • Hear what this project has meant to Chris Lines, Chair of Cheetham Hill, and check out this double page spread in The Telegraph

Accreditations gained: 11 City & Guilds Entry Level 3 in Carpentry and Health & Safety

 

Visited Cheetham Hill in Manchester to help with the finishing touches to their new girls changing room 😎 Last time I did plastering was back in my labouring days at Tunnel Refineries! The changing room is going to give the girls a safe place to change before and after practice. The club were able to get a grant through the Barclays Community Fund and were supported by Volunteer It Yourself 💪🏾 Small but important steps to give girls equal access to football. Ian Wright, Barclays Ambassador, Former Arsenal and England Striker, LinkedIn
Great to part of getting the girls’ changing facilities up and running at Cheetham Hill Sports Club in Manchester. It's all part of creating equal access to football with the @BarclaysFooty Community Football Fund @IanWright0 @VIYproject Kelly Smith MBE, Barclays Ambassador, Former Arsenal and England Forward, Twitter
Was delighted to be at Cheetham Hill Sports Club and see the great work being funded and delivered by Barclays Community Football Fund and Volunteer it Yourself to renovate the female changing rooms and provide disability access. Unique experience seeing Ian Wright and Kelly Smith plaster the walls - the video explains all! Nicola Walker, CEO, Sported UK, LinkedIn