The FA and Youth Sport Trust Strike Partnership to Inspire More Girls

The FA and the Youth Sport Trust have launched a new partnership to inspire more girls into football during National School Sport Week.

Former Everton and England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis met with students at the Manchester Communications Academy yesterday and was inundated with questions before running a master class session with coaches from the FA, for 30 girls.

"It's inspiring for me to come and meet all of these girls and to see what's going on in schools" said Brown-Finnis. "It helps to bring an actual face into school so girls can ask lots of questions, understand what their journey has been, the highs and lows as well as barriers."

Ahead of the Lionesses UEFA Women's Euro 2017 campaign this summer, The FA and Youth Sport Trust are teaming up to help boost the number of females participating in football. Part of National School Sport Week, thousands of schools have been celebrating PE and schools can still register for the free resources until the 1^st September at www.youthsporttrust.org/nssw

Assistant Director of Innovation at the Youth Sport Trust, Lisa McHendry said: "It's been a fantastic morning seeing the young women from the academy engage with Rachel and be inspired by this session. Whilst we continue our work to form early habits at primary level, the Youth Sport Trust is delighted to be working with the FA to continue to tackle the gap in participation in secondary schools."

The FA is striving to increase the number of girls and women playing football across the country as part of the Gameplan for Growth, which aims to double the number of females participating in football by 2020. With the Lionesses competing in the Euros this summer, they're hoping to maximise the chance to inspire girls across the country.

"For me, secondary PE wasn't great when I was at school" shares Brown-Finnis. "We didn't have girls football so I didn't play for a couple of years, except from on the yard. So to have initiatives from The FA and the Youth Sport Trust that targets girls in secondary schools and promotes the benefits such as teamwork and communication, not just football skills, is really exciting" said Brown-Finnis.

"It's really exciting to have a successful Lionesses team who can hopefully perform well this summer and come back and be role models and inspire communities so that more girls can engage with football."

SOURCE: Youth Sport Trust