Fylde Rugby Community Foundation Origins Video

I’ve been involved in lots of things, but I just see girls and boys enjoying a rugby club, that is what we’re here for.

Well, David and I were on a trip to France, actually, and we were just discussing the various ways in which sport are organized in different areas, in different regions, different countries.

In England, for instance, where sport tends to depend on individual clubs, and there didn’t seem to be any sort of coordination between schools, colleges, further education, and rugby clubs. So, this was really the concept of it, and sort of we discussed David said, “Well, wouldn’t it be great if we could put something together on the Fylde Coast?”

I think the vision’s really important because in any organisation, I think you’ve got to have a vision that everybody understands and buys into, and it’s got to be realistic.

And it was basically to improve access to rugby union in Blackpool, Fylde, and Wyre by offering community pathways for participation of the sport of rugby, regardless of age, sex, background, and built around rugby’s core values of teamwork, enjoyment, respect, discipline, and sportsmanship.

So, that, to this day, is still our vision.

We deliver all programs across Blackpool, Fylde, and Wyre, working with partner clubs, but partner councils and organizations.

We deliver Rugrats Rugby, which is ages 3 to 5, all the way through to walking rugby, where about our oldest participant over 80, and we have wheelchair rugby.

We do a lot with the special educational needs and disability schools, and we have a whole range of primary school and secondary school programs.

So, the foundation has really helped to increase the presence of rugby in the Garstang area by getting into the primary schools and through the high school.

It’s fantastic to see the difference in kids once they’ve joined the rugby, and see their confidence grow, and to see them work as a team.

I’ve set a target this year that I wanted to get back to over 200 players since pre-COVID and we’ve actually reached that and gone above it.

And I think a lot of that has come from the work that’s been done, especially with the younger junior teams.

You’ve given us a bit of a spur that if you’re willing to go out there and do some work, we found some of the coaches have also wanted to get more involved and when the numbers come in, they’re not going off to many players, they’re actually embracing it, which so it’s thank you really for doing all the work and actually supporting us cuz I feel like we’ve not had that for so long.

You know, I was isolated and on my own. I don’t know anybody. I’ve gone from that to knowing, you know, people with Thornton, Garstang.

I even go and do a bit down at Preston Grasshoppers and play down there because of walking rugby.

So, the community is and the mental element is huge.

The Rugby Pathway program was sponsored by Porsche and Preston this year.

We provided 15 children the opportunity to join a rugby club, which gives them access to kit so they feel more involved with the team, transport to get there, and also four years membership.

This supported underprivileged children and families to access rugby, which the foundation is all about creating rugby for all.

So, the mentoring and rugby program is such an impactful program that we’ve set up.

We piloted it last year in three state secondary schools across Fylde and now we are engaging nine out of the 12 secondary schools across the Fylde Coast.

So, we take between three and six pupils targeted by the schools that are at risk of antisocial behaviour or truanting from school or lessons.

We work on workshops such as life skills, we do benefits of physical exercise, we have nutrition workshops, financial literacy.

We’re really focusing on mentoring them through their life’s journey.

It’s given me access to really good role models, people who can work with children who not necessarily empathize but they’re understanding that they’re professionals.

It’s the quality that’s really impressed us.

So, it’s meant that I can engage and bring children back into education through the mentoring program.

Yes, so the rugby reading champions program was initially set up in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

We go in working in a workshop environment to find that enjoyment with reading and we use rugby sport as a tool to utilise this.

I’m very fortunate to actually attend a couple of sessions myself.

The reading sessions particularly were impressive. They were enthusiastic about reading.

We spoke to the teachers afterwards who all stated that you know, the big improvements in their reading ability and their behaviour, I think, really.

A primary school in Blackpool recorded a full year’s reading age improvement over the 10 weeks, which is fantastic.

Every primary school we go into, we have certificates that we try and give out at the end of every session that praises the children but then also offers them to come down to our camps and enjoy rugby even more.

If they’re enjoying it in the sessions at school, then why not go and enjoy even more through the holidays?

In addition to all the other partner mini junior rugby clubs we work with, we’re heavily connected with Fylde Rugby Club.

We also deliver our tag rugby festivals at Fylde Rugby Club including our primary school based tag rugby festivals.

We also deliver moderate learning disability and severe learning disability tag rugby festivals.

The foundation has had an enormous impact.

Most of the girls come via the foundation. Obviously, they’re going into lots of local primary and secondary schools, which is amazing, but they also run rugby camps in all the holidays.

They’re very popular with the girls as well as the boys.

And every so often they’ll put on a rugby festival for girls specifically.

My favourite things about coming to the camp are meeting new people and being able to enjoy the time that I spend here with them.

It’s inspired me to be the person I am today. And how it’s helped me through like hard times.

The camps that they do for us down here are brilliant.

We’re getting kids into rugby as young as three and we’re seeing that kind of development in our kids into our seniors now.

Sadly, you may have heard of Thumbs Up for Charlie. I lost my son to a brain tumor.

And if it wasn’t for the rugby community who got round me, I don’t know how I carry on functioning today.

But the rugby family, for me it’s a lot more than a sport. It’s a community. It’s the people down there. It’s the volunteers.

The work that we’re delivering in rugby clubs include coach support.

We also offer support with pathways into mini junior age groups, but also a range of other programs like walking rugby.

With our foundation and being connected with other rugby clubs in the Fylde area, that’s brought people together and started people talking who weren’t really talking and helping each other out before.

So, our foundation has regular cluster meetings with other rugby clubs in the Fylde area where we share ideas and what’s gone well and what might be improved.

We’re hoping over the next two or three years to get into all 18 state secondary schools in Fylde, Wyre and Blackpool and be able to offer curriculum plus and also the mentoring program in all state secondary schools.

We actually have an ambition to be in all 101 primary schools in Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre within two years either offering conventional after school rugby or the brilliant rugby and reading program that we’ve got.

So, those are really our main objectives for the next few years.

And I just think that by putting something into this foundation that there’ll be so many children who will appreciate the game of rugby.

Where you’ve got to learn that you’re part of a team. You’ve got to be a good mixer. You’ve got to accept defeat and victory with the same humility.

And I just think the values in life, a lot of them are shown on the rugby field.

I just think it’s one of the best things I’ve been involved in in rugby.