New details have been announced for the forthcoming Women’s Football week festival, which will be hosted by York on 6th March.
The event, awarded to York because of the vast developing success of the Women’s football team and their work to raise money for BUCS charity Marie Curie, will be a celebration of women in sport. It hopes to encourage more girls to get involved in the sport and aim to follow the success of clubs like UYWAFC.
Following the nationwide campaign ‘This Girl Can’, a movement created by Sport England, encouraging Women to get involved in sport in general, WFW (Women’s football week) will continue this aim while hoping to raise generous funds for Marie Curie, Bucs’ chosen charity for the next two years
The plan for the day is to be split into two events. The afternoon will focus on employability and empowering women through sport, where the Bucs CEO and the league’s sponsor Deloitte will be invited to lend their knowledge of skills gained through involvement in sport that can increase employability. This will be alongside various fundraising events, both football and non-football related aiming to raise funds for Marie Curie, who will also be in attendance.
Women’s Football president Ellie Whitaker, who is working with Prathiv Kholia (Bucs Football Development Manager) to make sure the whole of York can benefit from the event, hopes to also generate involvement from outside the university: ‘ We thought WFW was an incredible opportunity to get the community involved, as it’s such a major Coup for the university’. Local clubs and schools will be invited down later in the afternoon, as well as students, to participate in coaching sessions run by an England Player (yet to be confirmed), while the UYWAFC coaches will also be running short skill-based sessions. Entrance to this event will be by donation, with other fundraising going on throughout the day and following the football there will be a presentation of a cheque of the money raised to Marie Curie to round off the day.