A prestigious award has been presented to the Asian Women’s Workforce Partnership to recognise their work to use new and creative ways to engage with, develop and support sport’s workforce in East London.

The group includes Vision Redbridge, the Muslimah Sports Association and London Sport, backed by the Essex County FA and Redbridge Council, and it encourages Asian women across Redbridge to take up football coaching. They tackle low sports participation among female minorities and 15 women were recently given tailored and targeted support to help them complete their FA Level 1 Coaching Course.

Essex County FA Football Development Officer Cindi Chatha was delighted to play a part in winning the ‘Workforce Award’. She particularly noted that it was presented on 8th March, which was International Women’s Day and just before the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Both represent an important date in the Essex football calendar.

“Throughout the season we work to ensure every individual has the opportunity of participating within football in some shape or form, without being discriminated against,” she said. “The International Day helps promote this work and enforces that message that football is for all and racism will not be tolerated. I’d like to offer my congratulations to everyone involved in this project, which is a really positive step forward for football inclusion in Essex.”

Yashmin Harun, Chair and Founder of the Muslimah Sports Association, added: “We are extremely proud to be have been given such recognition with this award. This is for all the partners who worked relentlessly to deliver a tailored course to meet the needs of the local community. More importantly, it goes to show what can be achieved when stakeholders come together with the same goal in mind.

“We would especially like to thank Mark Healy of Vision Redbridge, Lorna Leach from London Sport and Cindi Chatha and Andrew Crowl from the Essex County FA, who believed in the project from the outset. Recognition should also be given to the women who participated in the course. By taking this first step onto their coaching journey they have already broken down so many barriers which they should be so proud about.”

“We now have 15 qualified female coaches, the majority of whom are from a BAME [Black, Asian, and minority ethnic] background, who are ready to deliver and inspire the next generation and to bring empowerment through sports. It’s such a powerful and rewarding thing. This course has already created employment opportunities for many of them, which will allow them to continue their progress.”

If you’d like to find out more about the Essex County FA’s inclusion and anti-discriminatory projects please click here, follow @EssexCountyFA on Twitter and search for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.