Four generations of one family were celebrating today after learning that their local junior football club has won a £5,000 award from the OneFamily Foundation.
OneFamily customer, Freda Jackson, who is a volunteer at Reddish Villa JFC, put the club forward for the award. Her grandson Gareth Curley is the club secretary and project leader, and his sister Amy is training to be a coach. Gareth’s nine-year-old son Joseph, and Freda’s other great grandson, three-year-old Leo Sutton, also play at the club.
“It’s a real family affair, I’ll admit,” said Freda, “and we’re absolutely thrilled that the people of Reddish voted for their junior football club to receive the funding from the Foundation. We can do so much good with the money, so many of the children will really benefit.”
The club, which is situated in an area designated as economically deprived, is open to children and young adults from three to 18 years old. The award from the Foundation will be used for the soccer school, which caters for the youngest group of players, those aged between three and six years old.
“The club was formed 22 years ago, in 1993,” added Freda, “with the particular aim of giving all children in the community the chance to play and enjoy football. We’ve got around 250 youngsters involved with the club now as we’ve gone from strength to strength.”
The volunteers at Reddish Villa JFC aim to teach the youngsters life lessons including discipline, communication and team work through the playing of football, and in order to keep costs low for the families involved, only charge for one child per family.
The money from the OneFamily Foundation will be used to hire a hall over the winter where the very youngest players can play, so that they are sheltered from the worst of the weather. It will also be used to buy new training equipment including footballs, cones and ladders.
Freda said: “We are so grateful that we’ve been awarded this money. The club is run on a voluntary basis and we don’t always have the funds to invest in the kind of equipment and facilities we’d like. The award will make such a difference to everyone at the club, not only giving the younger players a safer place to practice over the winter months but also making sure all of the player receive the highest standard of coaching possible. We really can’t thank OneFamily, and everyone who voted for us, enough.”
The OneFamily Foundation is a unique customer benefit fund, provided by mutual organisation, OneFamily, which has committed to make £5million available to its members over the next five years to make their lives and communities better.
James Hale, Customer Engagement Manager at OneFamily said: “We are delighted to award £5,000 to Reddish Villa JFC. The club brings the whole community together, as is evidenced by the many volunteers involved, and all the families of the children who play at the club. We’re absolutely delighted to know that we have played our part in improving facilities and opportunities for local young people and hope that the club will continue for many years to come.”
OneFamily provides investments, savings, health and life insurance products to help families work together to meet the financial demands of modern life. As a customer-owned business it is run for the benefit of its customers. The OneFamily Foundation redistributes a portion of the organisation’s profits, and intends to make £5 million available to customers over the next five years to help them, their families and their local communities. The Foundation has also helped hundreds of customers with personal grants since its launch in 2014, and its funding pot is made possible due to the financial stability of the customer-owned organisation.
There are four categories for each award, in order to ensure the Foundation gives a wider range of community projects an equal chance to access the funds. For this round of Community Awards there is one award of £25,000 and four awards of £5,000 available in each category. Reddish Villa JFC won one of the four awards available in the Sports and Social Groups category.
For further information about the OneFamily Foundation please go to https://foundation.onefamily.com/
