Marshfield Junior FC

Hugh Swan is now the registered Club Welfare Officer for MJFC.

But what does a Welfare Officer do?

He or she has two fundamental roles:

1. Taking the lead in being informed and aware of the league or club’s responsibilities when running football activities for children and young people. This involves:
   
   • Ensuring these responsibilities are well-understood by others
   • Developing best-practice processes
2. Helping league and club personnel understand what their ‘duty of care’ towards children and young people actually means and entails on a day-to-day basis. For example:
   
   • Ensuring all relevant people complete The FA’s ‘Safeguarding Children’ training programme
   • Helping to make sure trips away are organised properly
   • Assisting those with regular contact with children and young people to complete the FA CRB paperwork

MUGA

There was a meeting of MORA on the 29th April 2008, at which MJFC and MFC were represented and it was agreed that we should push ahead with plans to develop a MUGA (multi-use games area) at the Withymead. This would provide the viallage with much needed facilities for all sports - including tennis, basketball, netball, hockey and, of course, football. With an asphalt surface, boarded and fenced sides and floodlights, the MUGA will give us all year round training faciliites. The plans are to be based on the MUGA at Bitton, which is 46 x 35m - big enough for 3 tennis courts and a decent game of football!

As part of the development, the pavilion will also be looked at. We are likely to need more changing facilities anyway and the MUGA will definitely add to the pressure on this facility.

The next step is budgeting, planning (and planning permission) and of course, fund raising. It is hoped that much of the necessary funds can be raised through grant funding, but undoubtedly much hard work will be required from all potential users. If anyone within MJFC is able to volunteer to help please contact one of the committee members.

Below are some photographs of the MUGA at Bitton, this is the type of facility envisaged for Withymead: