http://www.wsff.org.uk Latest news from the Womens Sports Foundation en-uk Tue, 23 Dec 08 14:55:07 GMT Copyright: (C) WSF The WSFF office will now be closed until 5th January for a well deserved break. If you need to speak to us urgently please call Tim Woodhouse on 07500 101566. Have a great holiday season and here's to a fabulous year of women's sport in 2009 Nominations are now open for The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year 2008 awards which recognise leading sportswomen and unsung heroes alike Now in their 21st year, the awards, which are among the most prestigious and influential in the British sporting calendar, will be presented at Lord's cricket ground on Thursday, February 12, 2009. The event is in association with David Lloyd Leisure and is also being sponsored by Sport England, UK Sport, and CCPR. The Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation is also lending its support and is the event's charity partner http://www.wsff.org.uk/documents/Sportswomen_08final_release.doc The Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) welcomes the increased funding for governing bodies announced by Sport England. As part of the next four year funding cycle Sport England will increase its investment to almost half a billion pounds, and WSFF hopes that a higher proportion of the figure will reach women than has traditionally done so. For the full WSFF response please click here http://www.wsff.org.uk../s_documents/NGB_settlements_for_09-13.doc Nike, in partnership with Ashoka and WSFF, have launched a worldwide competition to find the best examples of community projects which use sport to improve the lives of women and girls. The competition also has a UK only section so we encourage as many projects, clubs, schools, and governing bodies to enter. There is a prize for the winner, but the best feature of the competition is that all the entries are visible to the public who are free to comment and make suggestions as to how to make the project even better. For more information please look here http://www.wsff.org.uk../documents/Nike_Gamechangers_e-card.pdf The Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation are supporting Skills Active's 'Women and Work' programmes pilot officiating project in Yorkshire and the Humber This recently launched project will fund training opportunities for women interesting in training as sports officials in either Football or Cricket and further information on the programme can be found here http://www.wsff.org.ukwww.skillsactive.com/women-and-work WSFF is the only organisation in the UK soley focussing on helping women and girls in sport and we are committed to helping organisations and individuals maximise the potential that women and girls offer. We are helping the sector to understand that women and girls aren't a and quot;hard to reach group and quot;, they are half the population and are the most under-utilised opportunity that sport has. In order to find out exactly how we can help you, please download our new brochure http://www.wsff.org.uk../documents/How_WSFF_can_help_you.pdf Research announced today by the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF), shows that 78% of women and girls would play more sport if it better reflected the customer-friendly experience of shopping. Currently, eight out of ten women do too little physical activity to benefit their health and just three per cent play organised team sports http://www.wsff.org.uk/documents/WSFF_Retail_story_21.doc The Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) has announced Sweat in the City (www.sweatinthecity.co.uk), an innovative research project designed to win a better understanding of how to motivate women to become more active Run in partnership with the Fitness Industry Association (FIA), Sweat in the City is offering 3,000 16 - 24 year old women who live in London and currently do little or no exercise, a unique package of free and mentored gym membership. The programme's ambassador, Jessica Taylor, officially launched the programme today (1 September http://www.wsff.org.uk/documents/SitC_Launch.doc WSFF are supporting a petition on the Number10.gov.uk website which asks the Prime Minister to support a GB women's football team at the London 2012 Olympics. As the petition explains, 'football is now the most popular team sport for women and girls but the women's game continues to be vastly under-represented in the media. Showcasing GB women's football at the London Olympics would encourage more girls and women to participate in team sport, to the benefit of their health and well-being'. WSFF are pleased to see that the FA have suggested they are prepared to send an England only women's team, if the other home countries' can't come to an agreement, but WSFF would prefer to see a GB team at the Olympics in 2012. To join us in supporting this petition please follow this link http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/GBFemaleFootball/ or http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/GBFemaleFootball/ Commiserations to both the England Women's Rugby League team and the England -17 Women's Football team as they both lost their world cup semi finals. Both teams performed very well early in their competitions but couldn't quite make it to the final, the rugby league team losing to New Zealand and the football team losing to North Korea. For anyone who still has any doubts about the quality of women's football in this country.... follow this link to take a look at Isobel Christiansen's stunning last minute 40 yard strike which took the Quarter Final against Japan into extra time. Goal of the season beyond doubt http://www.fifa.com/u17womensworldcup/matches/round=249940/match=300052915/index.html