More than £13,000 has been given to clubs throughout Wales as part of the WRU’s target of supporting innovative projects aimed at volunteer recruitment and training, player recruitment, the formation of new teams and marketing and promotional activities.
The overall aim is to support the sustainability of clubs. The money used in round one of the funding forms part of a total of £200,000 available to clubs for the 2012/13 season.
In the first round of funding, projects included funding coaching courses, providing junior team training equipment and holding a club based first aid training course.
Nant Conwy is just one of the clubs to have been awarded a recruitment grant in the first round of funding. They are using the money to develop their new and existing coaches through participation in WRU level one and level two coaching sessions.
“We’re using our grant to help put some of our club members through these coaching sessions and we’ve already recruited 10 new members who are interested in doing the level one award,” said Club Secretary Ifor Efans.
“It’s a great help to us and will help to raise the standards of coaching within the club. It all forms part of our plan for the future, hopefully these coaches will come through to take charge of our senior teams going into the future.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the WRU funding and we’re very grateful. This sort of thing can only be for the greater good of the grass roots game.”
Abergavenny are using their grant for a similar purpose as well as running a WRU level one refereeing course.
“The main aim of applying for this funding was to improve our minis and juniors section,” said Club Secretary Andrew Morgan.
“We’ve been strong in the 6-16 age groups for a long time and we’re only looking to improve that.
“The funding has been of huge benefit and helped immensely. Hopefully by running these courses it will only benefit our junior players and the club in general going forward.”
The WRU has also supported two pilot projects in partnership with Aberaeron and Skewen.
Aberaeron has set out its commitment to recruit players and volunteers from their local community by supporting a club coach in the role of Club Participation Officer. This coach will work closely with the regional development team to help deliver WRU objectives.
The Skewen project takes a slightly different approach, albeit aiming for a similar outcome. They hope to benefit from the further education of their coach coordinator who will design and implement coach training and support in the club for the next three years.
“It’s vital the WRU continues to support grassroots clubs as they are the life blood of the game in Wales,” said WRU Head of Compliance Julie Paterson.
“This type of funding can only benefit clubs into the future and I would encourage other clubs to look into applying for funding.”
The second round of Recruitment Funding closes on the 30th November 2012. Clubs are encouraged to contact the Club Operations Team to discuss projects prior to submitting an application.
For more information on how to apply for future funding go to www.mywru.co.uk.
Round One of Recruitment funding:
First Aid training: Machen.
Volunteer Recruitment event: Garndiffaith.
Coaching courses: Abergavenny, Nant Conwy.
New website: Penarth.
Institute of Groundmanship training and membership: Maesteg, Banwen.
Volunteer course: Skewen.
New Club Participation Officer: Aberaeron.
New junior team training equipment: Holyhead.
