New project to help find volunteers
A NEW project to help find volunteers for football clubs and leagues is being launched.
Suffolk FA have joined forces with the Volunteer Suffolk Community to create a portal for individuals to put themselves forward to volunteer for opportunities in football.
Suffolk FA Football Development Officer (Retention) James Morley said: “As we start to come towards the end of the season, planning for the 2024-25 will begin to get underway. A new season can bring about a lot of change for leagues and football clubs at all levels.
“Part of this change can be the turnover of volunteers and opportunities becoming available for someone new. However, it can be hard to find someone to step into available roles and give up their time to volunteer.
“A search for volunteers often leads to looking from within organisations, with parents volunteering as part of their child’s team or spectators offering support for matchdays or other duties around a club. A league might appeal to the teams in their league to join the committee.
“There are a lot of individuals who have a variety of different skills which clubs and leagues could tap into and contribute to the day-to-day running. For example, an accountant could help be a treasurer or a social worker can help be a welfare officer.
“And these individuals don’t have to be involved in football currently, there might be people who are looking for volunteering opportunities and have an interest in football and would like to get involved.”
Suffolk FA have joined the Volunteer Suffolk Community and created a portal that enables individuals to put themselves forward to volunteer for a variety of different opportunities in football.
The portal enables any individual who has an interest in volunteering with Suffolk teams, leagues or at Barnards Meadow in Lowestoft to put themselves forward and provide information on their interest and experience they have.
If you are interested in finding out more and would like to get involved, please click one of the links below:
James continued: “As part of the search for volunteers, we want to be able to match them with opportunities that are currently available in Suffolk football within our league and club network.
“Therefore, we would be looking for clubs/leagues to send us their job adverts and available opportunities to allow us to match up individuals with those roles. Hopefully this will enable us to support the search for volunteers which can be hard to find.
“To do this, please click here to provide information on your available roles. Please provide as much information as you can about the job and any experience you might be looking for to help us match individuals.
“If you provide an opportunity to us, we will work closely with you to let you know if there are applicants interested in a particular role.
“When we think about sponsorship we often think about money, but time can also be sponsorship. Perhaps a league or club needs time to support the day-to-day running and a company or business can give exactly that, in return for some publicity, say an advertising board, social media shout outs or programmes. If you are a company and want to support Suffolk Football, please also get in touch.”
James Morley can be contacted on 07976 957094 or via email at james.morley@suffolkfa.com
Kathryn Bullen and Claire Chenery of Halesworth Town Youth FC, who were Grassroots Club of the Year for 2023, are pictured with local McDonald’s franchisee Carol Rogerson (left) and Suffolk FA Chair Phil Lawler (right) at Portman Road.
