Community & Foundation Projects 23/24

A Walking Rugby project – funded by Allianz and Sport England – that goes from strength to strength. The session runs every Thursday evening on the back pitch.

From an initial 6 participants we now have 40 signed up with a core of 20 regulars. All have joined the club as social members and have doubled the takings on the bar on a Thursday evening. We have held ‘fixtures’ with other clubs and have advised on setting up WR at some clubs.

Birmingham Rugby Together – This was an RFU initiative to take rugby out of the club and into the community and ran from Sept – March 2024. It was funded by the RFU, managed by Sport Birmingham and delivered by MRCF

This project has also led to collaborations with Safe Haven, a police led initiative and Strike9, Dele Adebola an ex premiership footballer’s project. This partnership will also lead to the development of the AWP and the introduction of formal football sessions at the club.

Community Sports Festivals – funded by Selly Oak Constituency and Sport England – running sports festival at Easter and a Summer holiday project called the Have-A-Go Games, to introduce the community to a range of different games showcasing the club facilities particularly the beach volleyball arena.

253 young people attended our camps this year with 20 sports being delivered.

The Girls Development Rugby Project – funded by The Telegraph, the RFU and Embark

The Bags of Character project is an investment by the Foundation in equipment and training to enable us to enhance the Foundation’s offer to schools and for the Club to use for Corporate days at the club for our sponsors and companies in general. The product enables training in team building, development of resourcefulness and resilience, leadership and problem solving.

We would like to thank Coalition for their generous sponsorship of the programme, where we have developed leadership and decision-making skills in disadvantaged young people. Coalition combines comprehensive cyber insurance coverage and security services to help businesses prevent digital risk before it strikes.

Rugby United Project – funded by the RFU to encourage youngsters from the BAME community to take up rugby. Delivered in schools by our community coaches in collaboration with Murabiyoon.

We hosted 10 school events at the rugby club e.g. rugby festivals, sports days, rugby experience days.
In addition to the above projects, we have delivered many specific projects in schools outside of our general in-curriculum rugby coaching including:

  • Tag rugby after school clubs,
  • Star Scheme helping get kids with adverse childhood experiences into the rugby club,
  • Staff rugby CPD sessions,
  • Girls ‘Love Rugby’ project,
  • Touch to Twickenham girls touch rugby project,
  • Reading & Rugby helping kids to read and learn rugby,
  • delivering sessions for school Anti-Bullying week,
  • delivering sessions for school Healthy Living / Sports week,
  • assisting Safe Haven project working with the local police force,
  • leading sessions around healthy eating and nutrition.

We have worked with 5038 pupils and in 51 schools.

We have run Sports Activator courses for our Colts to put them on the first step towards a coaching qualification. The Colts that completed the course (10) have also gained experience of coaching by attending and assisting the club’s coaches at the sports camps.