HOW DO I START MY FALA PROJECT?
SPEAKING AT FALA 23 GRADUATION AFTER WINNING THE OUTSTANDING YOUTH LEADER AWARD FOR MY FALA PROJECT “OFF YOUR CHEST”.
First of all, welcome to all the new particpants of the FA Leadership Academy (and returning graduates who are starting their next challenge)! This guide is aimed at those who have attended the FALA residential however also serves as a great starting point for anyone looking to drive positive change in football!
Luckily, I had a pretty clear idea for my project by the end of my #FALA22 residential - check out Off Your Chest if you haven’t already - which was investigating the possible gaps in the resources available to coaches to better support youth player mental well-being. Whether you have settled on an idea yet or are still yet to figure that out, I hope this starting stratergy guide helps you turn your FALA project from words on a page to a project that is having a real impact on football in your community. My top three tips take up the form of ABCs, so they’ll be a little easier to remember!
A Clear Vision
Bold and Recognisable
Create Quality Connections
Let’s get stuck in! I’ll be referring to how these three things made my project successful and sustainable. As you begin your own football project management, you might find your own ways of making it work!
A Clear Vision
As previously mentioned, I was fortunate to have a rough idea of what my project was going to look like early on. This is vital; how can you expect to stay focused, and motivated if you’re unsure what you’re striving towards?
FALA gives you an opportunity to turn an idea into reality. Narrow your goalposts to ensure you are focused on the relevant and required details to ensure your time is spent effectively on your project. As much as all FALA projects can change the world, let’s ensure our own footballing community benefits too!
Ask yourself what your “why “ is! Why do I think this will create positive change in my football community? And keep that thought process going. For example: why did I think investigating coaching resources would improve mental well-being support? Because my own ability to support young people’s mental well-being has come from my professional work. Why is that? Because my coaching journey qualifications didn’t touch on mental well-being in too much detail. Why is that? Because the courses put a big emphasis on the physical aspects of football. Why is that? I don’t know. But they definitely could focus on the mental aspects as well to make coaches like me feel more confident!
Once you recognise your gap in knowledge, that’s the exact point of exploration where your project can truly make the difference! Before you continue reading, try the above process with your ideas and see where it leads you. Once you’re settled on a gap to explore, we can continue!
Bold and Recognisable
The turning point for my project was when Off Your Chest gained its own physical identity and became more than just my handwritten outlet in my FALA notebook. However, as much as a lot of the appearance of teh project worked seamlessly together, each element of the visual was deliberate and intentional:
The name - “Off Your Chest” serves purpose to a dual meaning. To get something off your chest as a figure of speech is paralel to speaking your mind, to take the weight off and to let soemthing go - both physically and mentally. In football, it’s a way of controlling the ball in which the entire game resolves around. Depending on your own experiences, you may have immediately related it to the former or the footballing image. This inclusive element meant those outside of football could still relate to the idea of better young people’s mental well-being without potentially feeling alienated by the football focus.
The colour scheme - did you know over 3 million people in the UK alone are colour blind and at least 1 in 10 people experience symptoms of dyslexia? Me neither until I started to explore the importance of brand identitiy. For the sake of a colour combination, you could make your project invisible to upwards of 10 million people. I settled on orange and black/white for my own coaching portfolios to ensure the contrast was great and it also popped out of the page with the vibrance of orange and the definitiveness of black.
The logo - I wanted to keep the football undertone clear so a badge-like logo seemed fitting! It translates well to presentation and is very simplistic and to the point. As much as I love my logo, I want it to be the first thing the viewer sees, but the intent behind the project is what I want them to remember most!
A great combination of the three above will result in more peope seeing your project, taking the time to let their curiousity win and read more about your project and ultimately support you on your journey to make it happen! Don’t be afraid to get yourself out there talking passionately about your project on a podcast, a social media page at your local club committee and league meetings! The right people will notice; the most amazing people will listen and the most inpsirational people will help eleavte your project further!
If you’d like further help here, I’m happy to host your project digitally here at coachcairdy.com if you’d like to give a set place to direct your audience to! Let’s work together to make it happen!
Create Quality Connections
That leads me nicely onto my last point: creating quality connections ensures your project reaches the right people. If you want more girls playing football, you need to get your message to clubs with capacity to support that happening. If you want to ensure certain demographics of adults are represented in football, ensure to ask them directly how you can make that happen.
I am incredibly fortunate that I was targetting young people and their coaches and guardians - I could use my school contacts across my county to share my initial survey to even more people. My county FA were incredible helpful at sharing my project directly to hundreds of clubs across the county multiple times. The clout meant I wasn’t a random spammy email - I was supported by the football association in my county! It was very hard for some clubs to ignore.
As an extra, incentivise your sessions with something that will be tangible to make them feel like they’ve recieved something for their time and suport. I’m fortunate that I was in a position to offer £100 worth of mental well-being prizes to one lucky club and I very much look forward for that to play a big part of setting up #OffYourChest in season 2!
Let’s Recap!
Be clear with what you want your project to achieve, who it’s going to help and why it will make a difference.
Make your idea more than words on a page. Give it an identity and showcase it personally - people are more likely to invest in a person than posters and social media posts. For example, the face of my website and social media profiles is literally me!
Ask anyone and everyone who you can think of - the worst thing they can say is they can’t help you. You move on and divert your incredible FALA feeling somewhere else! Keep moving your idea forwards. Rejection is just redirection!
I hope you find this useful and I can’t wait to see more projects get up and running. If you found something here of value, let me know by messaging me on social media @coachcairdy! Sharing my blog posts helps me recoup some of the cost of the site and to continue to celebrate other projects like yours!
I look forward to chatting to you soon!
