UTS Bats first Women and Girls Community Football Chartered Club

The UTS Bats have broken new ground in NSW and the ACT as the state and territory’s first Women and Girls Community Football Chartered Club.

The Women & Girls Community Football Charter is a commitment from clubs to work towards making their environments welcoming, safe and inclusive for women and girls.

The charter sets out the expectation that clubs will champion women and girls and will be guided by four principles:

• – Opportunity
• – Visibility
• – Access
• – Investment

To become chartered, UTS Bats followed the steps outlined on the Women and Girls Charter webpage.

When asked about why UTS Bats strived to be a women and girls chartered club, its Vice President, Kate McCaffery, said: “UTS has always strived to be an inclusive club. It was Important for us to show our commitment to investing in our girls so that we can continue to be leaders in harnessing positive and social change within our community.

“We want our women to be able to have the same opportunity to participate and grow their skills and to know that they are valued and respected as members of this club.

“We also want to be able to foster and nurture the future women of the club and for them to be afforded the same opportunity to become pioneers of our game.”

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Because they are chartered, the Bats will now receive the following:

• – Correspondence on women and girls’ initiatives, grants, and opportunities.
• – Favourable consideration when assessing applications for AFL based funding initiatives that relate to women and girls.
• – Recognition via the AFL Play website with an opportunity for the club to be showcased.
• – A Women & Girls Community Football Charter poster which can be publicly displayed in the club, acknowledging the Bats’ commitment.
• – A suite of digital assets that can be used on the Bats’ website, socials, and advertising.

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Club President, Adrian Sibbick, mentioned the number of women playing at the UTS Bats and the club’s commitment to the charter: “When presented with the opportunity to be a Women and Girls Chartered Club we jumped at instantly.

“The continuing importance and the provision of opportunity for women/girls to be in our club is imperative for our growth. We have jumped from 5 to 11 teams in the last 6 years, and this couldn’t have been done without the involvement and growth of women/girls in our game.

“To be seen as a charter club just strengthens the reason why we think this growth (of the women’s game) is so important to us.  

“We are so excited about the season ahead and instilling the principles provided in this Charter.”

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UTS Bats play in AFL Sydney, and you can too, just visit play.afl to find your nearest club.