South Leicester Rugby Footbal Club (SLRFC) is a vibrant community club, run by volunteers, which wants to offer the best first aid facilities and training for all of the children which come to play at our club. In addition, we want to be able to provide care for all parents, grandparents, guardians and visitors to our club. We aim to be the leading community club in relation to first aid provision in the county and also provide training to our volunteers and the wider community, especially the children in basic life support.

We have seen expediential growth in terms of mini and junior player numbers over recent years with children enjoying the benefits of rugby from the ages of 5 to 16. We have two senior sides that also play at SLRFC.

As a club, we are passionate about providing first class care for our players and safeguarding them against harm. Additionally, we want to be able to offer first aid to any visitors that come to the club, young or old. The club are keen to provide opportunities for children to play rugby in a safe environment and improve their health and wellbeing through the use of exercise and competitive rugby. We also want to provide opportunities for our members to be trained in the skills of basic life support as research has proven this to be beneficial and we have a captive and willing audience.

As a club we have invested and continue to invest in new facilities such as a disabled toilet with baby changing facilites, flood lights and also the renovation of the clubhouse. Any surplus money that the club holds is re-invested to improve facilities.

Mini and junior membership numbers are increasing month on month and our small team of first aiders have to work incredibly hard to look after the numbers of young people attending training sessions and matches. The club is run by volunteers alone and currently we have around 35 volunteers who support all of the activities at the club. These volunteers give up their time in the evening and weekends to support training and matches and also attend training provided through the Leicester Rugby Union and Rugby Football Union. The club wants to continue to grow but recognises that we can only do this if we can continue to recruit and develop our team of volunteers and also provide interesting opportunities for our young players. However, our current first aid facilities and equipment are not on par with our aspirations.
Funding of £5,000 from Aviva would allow us to purchase essential equipment to support the teams such as a spinal board, defibrillator and other essential consumables. In addition, the funding would enable the club to train up to 100 children in the essential skills of basic life support including choking. The funding would also be used to purchase and renovate the existing first aid room at the club and make it a more welcoming environment for any children or visitors to the club who may require its use. We have a number of older people in our immediate community and also a number of older people who visit on match days to watch their grandchildren play at the club. We would also train our volunteers in the use of the defibrillator and also make it accessible to the community, should it be required. All this will benefit our club and the community enormously and allow us to develop our skills and the skills of the children whilst improving the facilities.

Thank you for supporting SLRFC mini and junior rugby teams

https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-2471