Barclays Community Football Fund
Working together to make football more inclusive to underrepresented groups
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].’
Our work with the Barclays Community Football Fund, in partnership with Sported, is bringing this legacy to life. We’re helping to develop the facilities and experience at grassroots football clubs across the country to include and welcome more young people from under-represented groups, including girls, those with special needs and/or a disability, from ethnic minority backgrounds or from the LGBTQ+ community, using sport and football as a vehicle to teach life skills to young people. All projects are match-funded by our National Partners at Sport England, with two projects supported by our regional Programme Partners Sport Birmingham and Think Active. Here’s what we’ve done so far.
Cheetham Hill Sports Club, Manchester
Our work kickstarted long-term transformation at this club to help them become truly inclusive. We created stud walls to separate current changing and shower facilities to create safe, separate female and disabled facilities where there previously were none. We also created cabinets for sink bases, as well as painting and decorating the corridor area, all with the help of 16 local young people (and a couple of football stars!) earning accreditations in Carpentry and Health & Safety.
Westbury Sports Club, Bury
19 local young people helped revitalise this grassroots sports club, where football plays a big role in the club. We helped to create privacy entrances to create female changing spaces, as well as creating a new entrance for the disabled toilet. All with a fresh lick of club colour redecoration, to instil pride in the young teams and build a sense of club community. The club now estimate more than 100 girls are now playing football as a result of the VIY project.
“The work has enhanced the facility to enable safe female and disabled changing facilities. The privacy screening of a changing room has ensured child safety for both girls and boys using the facility.
reported by Westbury Sports Club
Sprowston Football Club, Norwich
We’ve transformed their current unisex changing rooms to create separate facilities for their growing female teams to use, including adding a WC cubicle for the first time (replacing their current all urinal line-up!) We’ve also redecorated the spaces to make them more accommodating and welcoming to both males and females, creating a sense of joint pride amongst the teams and ultimately invite more to be included to play in the ‘Ability Counts’ league. Sprowston then went on to receive post-project support through the VIY Club Improvement Programme, part of our partnership with Sport England.
Saltley Stallions Football Club, Birmingham
Saltley Stallions FC was created to help remove the cultural and other barriers for women to play football in central Birmingham. Here we divided the changing rooms, enabled male/female toilets and created social seating areas, all to help existing, new players and their friends and families to feel included and welcome in their sporting environment. All with the help of 20 local young people, including girls and young people with refugee status here in the UK. Hear from some of them here.
Bootle Bucks Inclusion FC, Liverpool
Bootle Bucks is all about engaging young people who might otherwise struggle to access playing football and sport due to disabilities, special educational needs and other barriers/challenges. In autumn 2023, we retrofitted a disused wooden cabin to create fit-for-purpose changing rooms, including reboarding damaged walls, building stud walling, seating and redecorating, to allow them to offer separate male and female changing facilities which currently don’t exist. Local England and Liverpool hero Jamie Carragher also returned to his former club and appeared live on Sky Sports News talking about the project!
Saracens RFC, Coventry
After the success of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, there was a surge of interest from girls to play football at Saracens RFC. We’ve renovated and redecorated the space to make it fit-for-purpose and more welcoming for girls and neurodivergent young people, including inspiring artwork and covered outdoor seating areas for spectators and young people with special needs like autism to take some time out. Alongside their thriving boys side, their first girls football team now boast 20 young girls regularly playing, and a pan-disability team of 10+ players swiftly followed.
Woodhouse Colts FC
Woodhouse Colts FC, is investing in women’s football for the first time as part of a two-year growth strategy. We sourced and installed two donated cabins on the bottom pitch – one transformed into a kitchen/diner with new fittings and storage, and the other converted into a dedicated female changing room. Both were painted in club colours.
We also built a fan zone and restored dugouts, creating a more vibrant and inclusive match-day experience. Thirteen young people participated in the project, with four earning Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations. Learners were referred by Vision West Notts College and Dawn House School.
This transformation, backed by Mansfield District Council, UKSPF, Sport England, and Morgan Sindall, marks a new chapter for female football at Woodhouse Colts FC.
Oldham Greenhill Community Sports & Recreation Club
We upgraded a vital sports centre for Oldham’s diverse community, creating a new changing room for Muslim women and girls by repurposing a disused space with seating and private toilet access. We also built a refreshment area and redecorated the sports hall with help from 13 Dulux volunteers.
Twelve young people, referred by local partners including the NHS, Upturn Oldham, and Positive Steps, earned Entry Level City & Guilds accreditations in Painting & Decorating, Carpentry, or Health & Safety.
One learner, Ben, 23, is now pursuing a career in construction after joining through JobCentre. The project fostered inclusion, growth, and new opportunities for all learners!
Winchmore Hill FC
In support of the club’s drive to boost female and pan-disability participation, we renovated eight changing rooms, replacing mesh separations with solid stud walls to ensure privacy, particularly for women and children. Volunteers from Brand and Dulux also helped refresh the clubhouse façade.
Sixteen young people, referred by ELATT College, The Boxing Academy, and Stormont House Special School, participated in the project, with 13 earning Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations, contributing to a more inclusive and welcoming sports environment.
RTB Ebbw Vale FC
As Wales’ only platinum-accredited grassroots club, RTB is a vital hub for the Cwm community with 400+ members. We revitalised the venue by refitting a new kitchen and worktops to improve service and private hire opportunities. We also repainted the kit room, installed storage racking, and refreshed the building’s exterior to attract new members.
Eighteen young people participated in the project, supported by seven local Brand volunteers who helped transform the space into a more vibrant and welcoming facility.
