Darts use Foundation funding to help girls into football

Dartford FC are set to increase the number of opportunities for primary school girls to try football with the help of a community grant.

The Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division play-off chasers are among the latest recipients of funding from the Trident Community Foundation, which offers grants of between £1,000-5,000 for clubs at Steps 3 and 4 of the non-League pyramid to start or grow community projects.

A previous TCF grant helped soften the financial blow of relegation from the National League South, with the club able to set up an Under-10s girls team as a result of outreach into two local primary schools, Oakfield and Westgate. Their latest grant is now set to help grow the programme further, as the club’s head of community, Darren Phillips, explained.

“We were seeing roughly 90 girls in each school every week, with our women and girls lead, Julie Sutherland, delivering those sessions,” Phillips said.

“It had a real benefit, got more girls interested, and we now have more girls who want to join the team but there aren’t enough spaces at the moment.

“Moving into this year, we are going to do something similar but with 10 schools rather than two, and we will look to create new girls teams for next season.

“This grant is all focused on developing opportunities for women and girls.

“We have excellent links with primary schools – the money we have been awarded through this has helped us grow it and we will keep on doing that.”

Since its launch in December 2020, the TCF has awarded more than £700,000 to support almost 200 initiatives across the country.

Phillips has worked on school initiatives within Dartford for 19 years, while Sutherland’s involvement stretches back almost three decades, and he is delighted the funding will help the club continue to make a difference in the area.

“It (the funding) has been a massive help after relegation,” he said.

“The chairman (Steve Irving) is quite happy as one of the schools we are running girls-only sessions in, Brent Primary School, is his old school.

“We took club legend Elliot Bradbrook back to his old school, Oakfield, to talk to the children to speak about football. When you take him into a school, they think he’s a Premier League player.

“All that sort of stuff is helped by any funding we can get and I would encourage any club to apply.

“If it impacts 10 people or 100, it is worth it. I found the whole process quite easy compared to others we’ve applied for in the past and without this money, we wouldn’t have been able to do as much with Julie.

“She might have had to drop down to two days a week rather than five, or we might have had to use her in other areas. It is a great help.”

Find volunteering opportunities near you at https://pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk/

Words from Paul Martin.