At the end of the last season, the CFA had a string of excellent beginnings; we proved there was demand for 1-wall Fives in schools in Kensington and Chelsea and held our first adult competition, we had a small but committed team, and our initial business plan made us aware of the potential of the idea. The past twelve months have been about taking those beginnings and preparing to realize the CFA’s potential by focusing in three areas; continued growth, formalisation and strategic planning.
Continuing To Grow
Our work in schools continues to flourish. Last year, we began a pilot in our first London borough, Kensington and Chelsea. 10 schools received two hours of free coaching as an introduction to the sport from the Westway Sports Centre. 70% of those schools have continued to play this year with extended CFA coaching and will participate in a borough-wide competition this summer. We will also run a pilot Level 1 Coaching Certification course to train the teachers in charge.
In co-ordination with the Healthy Schools Partnership, we began working in our second borough, Lambeth. Once again, we offered schools a two hour introduction to Fives and have so far delivered this in 7 schools. Outside of our two target boroughs, we have begun receiving coaching requests from individual schools and have been able to extend our coaching programme.
On the adult front, we held our second UK 1-wall Competition this summer at St Paul’s School. The competition attracted over 70 players from both the EFA and RFA, as well as a number of competitors who were new to Fives. There has also been international interest. The CFA has been invited to send an England team to international competitions in Italy and Spain later in the year. We also have a number of Irish Handball clubs who are interested in hosting touring Fives parties come to play in Ireland.
Formalising the Association
In last year’s annual report, we identified our small, informal team as a potential barrier to the aspirations of the CFA. I am pleased to say that the team has grown to twelve members. The board is made up of a mix of Fives players, but more importantly non-Fives players who bring their professional insights and experience to the team. This includes three experienced directors from the Directory of Social Change, the Innovation Unit at the Department from Education and Skills, and Teach First.
The board will be crucial in developing the CFA on all fronts and helping us to achieve our aims. Consequently, the board is structured into sub-committees which focus on our five key activity areas; funding/strategy, schools, adult Fives, legal/financial, and marketing. Its first task has been to apply for charitable status. In May, the board actioned its memorandum and articles and submitted its application to the Charity Commission.
Strategic Planning
The main reason for applying for charitable status is that we are now absolutely certain on what our strategic plan is. The original plan highlighted the need for and benefits of 1-wall Fives, but did not set out what our specific objectives would be and how much it would cost to achieve them. In January, the strategy team began work on revising the business plan to develop a concrete, robust plan for expanding the CFA’s work. The result is a strategic plan to spread 1-wall Fives to 20 London boroughs by 2012 at a cost of £300,000.
This plan is the foundation of the association’s activities from now on, and all five sub-committees are working hard to complete the tasks necessary to act upon it. The funding team has already begun presenting that plan to corporate sponsors, grant-giving trusts and charities. As above, the schools team continue to work with new schools thus strengthening the case for funding 1-wall Fives and the adult Fives team continues to seek out and provide new opportunities for existing EFA and RFA members to play 1-wall. The legal/financial team is preparing the ground for a School Membership scheme to launch in September. Finally, if you want to see the plan, then the marketing team has put the full strategic plan and corporate funding packages onto a website designed for potential funders (www.cityfives.org.uk).
Achieving our Strategy
The CFA promotes 1-wall Fives as a solution to the sporting and social problems faced by inner London schools which lack the space and money for on-site sports facilities. It will increase awareness of Fives, but more importantly it will make a real difference to sports participation and fitness levels of pupils in London who do not have access to sport. The scale and extent to which the CFA will be able to do this, depends on our ability to attract funding.
I finished last year’s report with an appeal for support in the form of manpower. This year, I would like to ask Fives players to read our strategic plan and think about whether they have any ideas or useful contacts for funding. In practice, our ability to attract funding is our ability to get the right contacts, to speak to the right people, to put forward our business case in a convincing and relevant way. It would only cost around £25,000 to sponsor a borough for three years, and I know that among the Fives community, collectively we know individuals, companies and charities who will be interested in supporting the CFA.
Please could I encourage you all to read the plan and to get in touch with me should you have any ideas (james.toop@playfives.co.uk). I hope to see you on a 1-wall court soon!
J.P.T.
City Fives Association Report 2006-2007 by James Toop
Created 19 Jan 2008 : Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk