We are reaching out to the kind people who use justgiving.com to raise funds for our recently launched under 17's girls football team.

West Park United Girls Academy started approximately 5 years ago by our Head of Academy - Kirsty Cunningham.

Whilst studying for her degree and battling gender inequality within the game, she has managed to grow the club from 10 girls - 5 years ago - to well over 50 girls currently. That is over a 400% participation increase within that time period.

For the past few seasons, we have operated with an under 9's, under 11's and under 13's side however, Kirsty - working as a volunteer in various schools - was approached by Eva and Jude (both in the photograph) asking about football opportunities for girls aged 15/16+ within the area - as there isn't any!

The two girls came on board with ourselves a few months ago as coaches for our under 13's side (soon to be our first ever under 15's side) and have worked tirelessly in their efforts to promote the girls game. So much so they sacrificed a week of their school holidays (alongside Kirsty of course) to run a summer camp for girls.

Due to their hard effort and determination alongside the support of Kirsty; the girls have managed to recruit an under 17's side which is an unbelievable achievement (They have now conducted there first training session as a team also!).

Our club is run entirely by volunteers and is self funding through monthly fee's from parents/guardians however, the costs of setting up a new team are significant but we are determined to make this a massive success to provide playing opportunities for girls within our council area and beyond for 15 years plus.

The funds raised would contribute to the following:

16 Home Kits; 16 Away Kits; 16 Training Kits; 20+ Footballs and other equipment such as bibs and cones.

Thank you for reading our story and we are grateful for any support which we receive.