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Her Game Too Cymru has successfully secured funding from The National Lottery to build on the campaign’s ongoing projects in Wales.
The grant from The National Lottery Awards for All Fund will be used across multiple initiatives, including the first Her Game Too Training Centre for women and girls located in Cardiff.
The fund provides financial support for community-led projects that bring people together to build stronger relationships, improve places that matter to communities and help people to reach their potential.
Her Game Too Cymru was founded just under a year and a half ago by Her Game Too Director and Liverpool FC Ambassador Roopa Vyas to lead the campaign’s work in Wales and she welcomed the news.
“As a voluntary, unfunded campaign, the news of securing some funding to help with Her Game Too Cymru projects was just incredible!” she said.
“Since launching Her Game Too Cymru in March 2023, we have very quickly grown the brand and are being recognised across Cymru through partnerships with Welsh domestic leagues.
“This growth means we want to deliver more to our partners and communities and can now do so with a wonderful amount of funding.”
Hosting stalls to spread awareness of Her Game Too at football festivals, panel discussions and community and networking events is one of the areas where the grant will be used.
Another is the Her Game Too Training Centre, which is currently run by the Women’s Football Collective and sees girls and women of all ages enjoying the sport they love - football.
The training centre’s weekly sessions are aimed at females of all abilities and have been visited by Wales Women’s goalkeeper Laura O’Sullivan and Cardiff City Women’s Ffion Price, who last year became a Her Game Too Cymru Champion along with Luton Town and Wales centre-back Tom Lockyer and former Wales, Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest striker Robert Earnshaw.
Roopa continued: “The training centre was set up without any funding, so being able to put investment into the centre for equipment and running costs will mean more opportunities for women and girls who attend.”
The Welsh arm of Her Game Too also held a number of events in its inaugural year, including enabling a group of South Asian women and their families to experience a live football match for the first time at the Euro 2024 qualifier between Wales and Armenia and An Evening With Her Game Too Cymru panel discussion, focusing on issues relating to sexism, held at Cardiff’s Rummer Tavern pub.
“I can already see the determination within the Her Game Too Cymru team to take things to another level and make our second year the most successful yet,” Roopa added.