The Club Changer Club Development Program aims to building clubs to provide welcoming and inclusive cultures and educate them to provide welcoming environments for all involved.
Through ‘Our Game,’ the program will lead clubs to improve the quality of the participation experience for women and girls; provide support to manage the growth in expected participation rates; and establish positive playing environments for women and girls.
At Aspendale SC they have actively had a 50/50 strategy in place for several years now. By offering specific sessions for women and girls including soccer mums, free come-and-try clinics for girls, and women’s social soccer we have increased female participation by over 40% in the last two seasons and now have over 180 girls and women playing at the club representing about 28% of all players.
Aspendale Stingrays field female teams in all age groups from U8 to U17/18 as well as open age WSL3 and over thirty-five social soccer. To further attract females to the club we specifically target fees and gathered advice from female players before we changed the playing uniform right across the club to make it female-friendly.
The President of the club, Derrick Berends said “Recently we worked with Greg from FV, who has supported our club since 2018, to solidify this experience into the OUR GAME Women and Girls Action plan which assisted us to further appreciate what has been achieved but also what more we can do and what support is in place to get this done.”
Club Development Program Manager Josephine La Pila is excited to see clubs work towards positive change by activating 'Come and Try' Days, Go Girls Football Hubs in partnership with Local Councils, GO Soccer Mums, Gala Days for Girls, free Girl’s sessions to capitalise the FIFA Womens World Cup.