Marking International Women's Day at Crawley Town Community Foundation

The idea of the day is to celebrate the achievements of women and to highlight the social, cultural and structural impact of women everywhere.

Around a third of the Foundation’s participants are female and a similar number makes up the staffing team working on football and community projects in Crawley.

As the Foundation is growing, the commitment to women’s and girls provision to get active is also growing.

The introduction of a Girls Elite and Development Centre has become a popular choice for girls eight to 13 to advance skills and widen their understanding of the game.

Taking place every Monday between 5pm-6pm (eight to ten years) and 6pm-7pm (11-13 years) these sessions are delivered by our elite and development coordinator Jacob Magnus and football and sports participation coach Nat Taylor.

The Premier League Kicks programme has a girls-only session at the Broadfield Stadium Ball Court every Friday, which is completely free.

The session runs 6pm-7pm and is for mixed abilities and ages between eight to 18 years old.

There is also a Premier League Kicks tournament taking place in April at Brighton and Hove Albion’s training complex for year groups nine, ten and 11 – to get involved email [email protected] for details.

The Crawley Old Girls Women’s Recreational Football programme is for women to get involved playing recreational football locally.

The Foundation hosts beginners (Wednesday, 7.30pm-8.30pm), intermediate (Thursday, 7pm-8pm), and advanced (Thursday, 8pm-9pm) at the Broadfield Stadium Ball Court.

For more details visit www.crawley-cogs.co.uk

As part of the week the Foundation spoke with football and education manager Holly Walker and Nat Taylor about their experiences in the game and the impact of the Lionesses success on football.

Holly Walker, who started playing football with a boys team, said: "Being the only girl in the boys team it was always quite difficult to thrive in that environment.

"When I moved to Crawley Wasps, that really changed everything for myself and I loved football more playing with girls than I did with boys.

“When I was growing up I didn’t have those role models that there is now in the women’s game and in football in general, we are seeing more females come into coaching roles, media roles and as pundits and that inspires the next generation.”

Taylor said: “The success in the Euros was massive and that caused a big growth in the game; starting initiatives and encouraging loads of people to play football because they had those role models and had the chance to see them on the screen.

I think it stems from that – at a professional level but [also] all the way down, in terms of grassroots football, even at schools, just giving girls the chance to play football.”

To watch these interviews and to learn more about the Foundation’s sessions visit www.ctcommunityfoundation.com

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Ruthless Reds snap six-game losing streak to move within one point of safety

HAVE YOU READ? Crawley Town co-owner says he understands the 'gravity and the severity of everything'