Hackney Laces Annual Review 2013

From two girls on a rainy, cold November night in 2011,

to our current register of 139 girls; we’ve come

a very long way.In the past year we’ve been in National press; met quite a few famous footballers; won some awards but most importantly, we’ve really grown and developed as a club.This is our first annual review. In it you will find out more about who we are, what we do and why we do it. Have a read and do let us know what you think.

Annual Review 2013

Get as many girls

into football as possible

and raise their aspirations

in the process

Our Vision

Our Mission

To place female football at the heart of bettering

our community

To create opportunities for young women in both life

and in football

To share our experiences, skills and knowledge

with others

To provide a safe, fun and inclusive

environment for girls

Our People

Hackney Laces is womaned by nine coaches – all female and all footballers. Each gives their time completely voluntarily and manages an aspect of the club. Whilst the roles are varied and everyone has an area of expertise, we all rally together and take in turn kit washing, orange cutting and Oyster card topping-up.

Our Players

Over the past year we have coached 139 girls. Our youngest is 11 and our oldest just turned 18. Since the Football Association deems a player an adult at 16 years old, we introduced a women’s team for our older Laces.

88% of our players hail from Hackney, with the remaining 12% commuting from

neighbouring boroughs

AYAT EL ZEIN

Player well-being

EMMA WITHYCOMBE

Community Liaison

JENNY SIMMONS

Photographer and Communications

JESS LAMOND Off the Pitch

Programming and Events

KATEE HUI

Partnerships and Paperwork

KEISHA GRAHAM- BENJAMIN

Recruitment and Player Development

LOTTIE KEW

Sponsorship and Public Relations

SARAH COBB

Football Development and League Admin

TIFFANY WARD

Player Development

At the start of the season all coaches and all players sat down and wrote the Hackney Laces rules. We thought if we were all involved in writing them, we’d all be responsible in keeping them. So we don’t wear jeans, we turn up on time, we bring friends and we’re nice to each other. Everyone signs a copy of the rules just to be sure.

How We Do Things

With the Girls

Hackney Laces is Owned and Run by the Community

Anyone can become a member. Members don’t need to be footballers or even like football for that matter, they just need to believe in what we do. They need to believe in raising aspirations for girls through football and believe in creating opportunities for girls in life. Members pay £10 a year, which helps in the running of the club. This year we had 71 members. As well as helping us financially, our members give us their time; some help with coaching; some with work experience placements; others make useful introductions and help with GCSE revision.We always welcome new members and their ideas.

OUR YEAR IN REVIEW

Everything we do starts with playing football. We train one evening a week

and play matches every weekend. We love a friendly and entering in

the occasional tournament.

On the Pitch

To raise aspirations and facilitate learning within the club, we host

speakers, run workshops and fund courses. We invest time in matching

girls with mentors, we help them find work experience, sit practice

interviews and look for opportunities to help our local community.

Off the Pitch

NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY

Season starts with a series of friendly matches at Mabley Green. We learn the rules of the game and grow confidence in the process.

Placed 2nd in the Golden Girls of Hackney Tournament and two of our players won awards: Fairplay and Player of the Tournament.

Members ran mock college interviews for our girls in preparation for the real deal. Team day at Clissold Park to get to know one another and welcome new recruits.

Bag packing in Sainsbury’s raised £781 for the club. TV sports presenter, Abi Griffiths hosted our official launch party with games, an auction and a quiz.

Ran a series of CV writing workshops where members worked with individual girls to help them articulate their skills and experiences.

Abi Griffiths came in and shared with us how she got into the TV business and what she likes about her job.

MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE

Two coaches, two players and one member ran the Hastings Half Marathon. Placed 14 of our girls in work experience positions.

Spanish Lessons from a member in preparation for our trip to Barcelona. Visit from Hazel, an entrepreneur and osteopath who shared with us how she started her business.

Nutrition workshop run by the Dairy Council to encourage healthy eating.

Hackney Laces go on tour to Barcelona, taking a squad of 16 players, 14 of which had never left the country.

Coaches, players and members helped build Hackney City Farm’s new shop, painting and stripping wood every Sunday for the month. Lots of Laces lined the streets cheering on Sarah whilst she ran the London Marathon for the club.

Lots of pre-season fitness training for the forthcoming leagues.

JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

Football season underway with the U16s in Capital Girls league and the 16+ in Greater London Women’s League.

Celebrated six players receiving their level 1 football qualifications, first aid training and safeguarding children certifications. Four girls got part-time jobs through help from a member and a coach. Laces lend their

faces to the WITNESS human rights campaign.

Hosted an evening recognising outstanding contributions to the club from players, coaches and members at the Hackney Marshes Centre.

Big Wins

FAIRGAME READER’S CHOICE AWARD

Stylist Magazine ran a competition whereby 10 female sports teams could win a free kit, provided by ADIDAS. The process involved a daily vote over the course of a month, a time in which we accosted everyone we knew to vote (thank you to those of you who voted).

AWESOME FOUNDATION The Awesome Foundation awards £1,000 a month to a different organisation. Five projects were invited to pitch in June and Hackney Laces received the funding.

WAITROSE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH BRITISH VOLUNTEER AWARDS

In December Katee was awarded one of 20 British Volunteer Awards for her work with Hackney Laces. The accolade came with a £500 prize which was awarded to the club.

YTFN PITCH

Youth! The Funding Network hosts an annual event where three community projects that benefit young people are invited to pitch to a live audience for funding. We had the opportunity to pitch in June and we raised an incredible £3000.

BARCLAY’S COMMUNITY SPORTS AWARD

The Football Foundation and Barclay’s run an award scheme which gives £1,000 to a community sports project to be used towards providing learning opportunities players and coaches. We won the award in November 2012 – which included the opportunity to meet Gareth Southgate (twice) and Graeme Le Saux.

When a player first comes to Hackney Laces we ask them a series of questions. These help us understand their motivations and reasons for coming, but also gauge their aspirations and goals. Through this we are able to measure what impact we are having on a player both on the pitch and off.

Something we’re quite proud of is our retention rate. Of the 139 girls we’ve engaged with this year, we remain interacting with 130 of them on a regular basis. Our players forge strong relationships with the coaches, members and each other, making Laces a positive club to be a part of.

Our Impact

94% of players declare that their main aspiration is to be famous for something, appear on X Factor or be a singer.

96% of players aspirations change after participating in ‘off the pitch’ activities for three months.

117 of the girls who came to us had never kicked

a football before.129 of the girls who

came to us had never played on a football team.

We measure our impact through a qualitative research framework consisting of surveys, 1:1 interviews, observed participation and focus groups.

There are a number of generous places that offer all kinds of things from free tickets to football matches, matinees at the theatre and places on training courses. We’ve even been invited to be in a live studio audience for a TV show. All of these are great opportunities, as are work experience placements outside of the borough. One thing we didn’t anticipate was the cost of travel. Any experience that required a train trip meant a cost, as young person Oyster cards are only free for buses. £1.50 here and there doesn’t seem a lot for a brilliant experience, but it all adds up.

When faced with difficulty finding a pitch space for training, some people wait and write letters. But we don’t. We’ve had moments over the past year where there have been mistakes with pitch bookings, changes in hire costs and a lot of disarray when it comes to a space to play in. At the end of the day, we just need a bit of space – inside or out, we’re not fussy. We always make sure we’re safe and it’s fun. Albeit a bit chaotic, it works for us.

Things We’ve Learned

Once a Week, Every Week (Sometimes Without a Pitch)

Travel Further

The costs of running a football club are higher than one would think. When we were debating the benefit of entering into a competitive league, we weren’t sure whether it would be a necessary and worthwhile and expense. We decided to enter and are very glad we did. The experience has been invaluable for the girls and you can really see the improvement in their ability, discipline and punctuality.

It’s easy to get a little bent out of shape as a small, enthusiastic organisation. You want to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. Something that we felt was really important to us was our ability to do one thing well, that thing being football. We’ve been approached by organisa-tions and groups this year asking us if we’d consider doing netball, basketball, dance. We’d love for someone to test our model on a different sport, but for us, Laces is football and we’re going to keep it that way.

Do One Thing WellEnter a League

Our Accounts

REVENUE

Grants £5,600Donations £800Membership £700

Total revenue £7,100

EXPENDITURE

Pitch hire £2,880Insurance £100Travel costs £440League fees £400Off the pitch space hire £200Course costs £400

Total expenditure £4,420

ACCOUNT BALANCE £2,680

NOVEMBER 2012 – OCTOBER 2013

Thank You

Credits

So much of what we do has been generously supported by the Barclay’s Community Sports Award, The Funding Network and The Awesome Foundation. We’re grateful for their support and belief in what we do.We’d like to thank Get A Grip, Big Laces and Hato Press for helping us with our merchandise and Lucy Groom and Pentagram for sorting out all of our design needs.We’re also grateful to Moo, FairCorp, Shutterbug London and Sabai Leela Health Spa for providing special offers to our members.Laces wouldn’t exist without the support of our members, friends, coaches and players. Thank you to everyone who is a part of our family.Big Laces love x

Designed by Alex JohnsPhotography by Jenny Simmons

Produced by Zoë Quirk Written by Katee Hui

www.hackneylaces.co.uk hello@hackneylaces.co.uk

@hackneylaces

Laces Community Club is registered in England and Wales as a non-profit

company limited by guarantee.Company Number: 07836674

We are Laces.

We are more than a football club, we’re a football family.

We teach life skills and ball skills.

We deal in enthusiasm not score lines.

Passion goes beyond the final whistle.

Every player gets a chance, regardless of age or ability.

There’s more to football than winning.

We share laughter at training, oranges at half-time and cake on birthdays.

Be yourself – on and off the pitch.

Lace up and play your heart out.