Sunday 8th September 2024
On Sunday 8th September JRF hosted a Female Sports Festival as part of their ‘Empower to Achieve’ Heritage project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, tracing the Ancestry of Women in Sport of Caribbean, Indian, and Somali Heritage.
Over 70 girls and young women turned up to the all-day event to enjoy a range of sports activities, led by the four women of Heritage the project is focussed on, Lorna Falconer – Head of Football Operations at Brentford Football Club, Connie Henry, MBE – founder of charity Track Academy, creator of the Sports Give Back Awards, and former international triple jumper; Jawahir ‘JJ’ Roble, MBE – British Football Referee, and Celeste Stevens, Head of Safeguarding & Academy Player Welfare at Reading Football Club.
The FA Coach Development Team came in full force with Sharon Muxworthy leading the way alongside Middlesex FA’s Kate Wells who looks after the development of Women’s football in the county.
In addition to sports activities there were DJ workshops, career pathways advice from local Football Business University, UCFB Wembley for those thinking of entering the sports industry.
One of JRF’s newest partners, Nuffield Health were also on hand to offer health checks and advice on health and wellbeing.
Later in the day the sport and heritage champions, Lorna, Connie, JJ and Celeste took part in a Memory Café which involved a 45-minute interactive Q&A session. The ladies took some fantastic questions from the floor and were joined by surprise guest, Eartha Pond one of JRF’s ‘Inspire 2 Achieve’ Heritage Mentors.
Young participants on the day had the opportunity to sign up to become Heritage Ambassadors as part of the ‘Empower to Achieve’ project where they will have a chance to take part in curation, events, media, film making, presenting, interviews, and research.
Otis Roberts, CEO of the Foundation said; “What a brilliant day and fantastic turnout not only by the girls and young women, but the integration of their families was wonderful to see. Our ‘Empower to Achieve’ programme is going from strength to strength and the interaction and positive influence on those involved is clear to see.
The hope is to have a session like this each month, so we don’t lose the connection between heritage, sport, culture, health and well-being, and opportunity.”
Note:
If you are interested in taking part in the ‘Empower to Achieve’ programme, please contact martene@jasonrobertsfoundation.org
