SFP Trust Defibrillator Project

The Scottish Football Partnership Trust (SFPT) has teamed up with The Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust (KFCT) to put together a new funding strand which will see 12 community football clubs provided with a lifesaving defibrillator.

In 2015 Parliament passed the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 giving more rights to community bodies to take over land and buildings in public ownership through asset transfer.  Since then, many grassroots community football clubs and organisations across all parts of Scotland have benefitted from these new rights and have been able to take over football pitches and pavilions via Community Asset Transfer.

Essentially, these football clubs have evolved into becoming community service and facility providers and in recognition of this, the SFPT and the KFCT were keen to assist safeguard the health and wellbeing of players, coaches, parents, grandparents and other members of the wider community who attend these facilities on a weekly basis.

Raith Rovers Community Foundation recently received a defibrillator through this new scheme to help safeguard the users of their facility at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy.  Paul Greig, Development Manager for Raith Rovers Community Foundation, said “At present the Foundation, Community Club and Football Club have around 600 members who regularly use Stark’s Park for a variety of football activity including training and league/cup matches which all teams compete in from professional to grassroots level. When you add on family members and other casual users along with spectators, we have a regular weekly footfall at Stark’s Park of over 2,500 members of our community which this scheme will help to protect should the need ever arise. We are grateful to the SFP Trust and the KFCT for supporting our club and our community”.

The British Heart Foundation: Why defibrillators for your community are important….

“Communities can play a big part in creating a nation of life savers. Having a defibrillator in your community and training people in CPR means that more people will know what to do when someone has a cardiac arrest.”

Does my community need a defibrillator?

“Yes, your community needs a defibrillator. For every minute someone is in cardiac arrest without CPR and access to a defibrillator, their chances of survival drops by up to 10%. Having access to a defibrillator in an emergency can be lifesaving, especially in rural areas where ambulance response times may be longer”.

What are the benefits of having a defibrillator in my community?

“Less than 1 in 10 people in the UK survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This has been partly attributed to two factors that communities can change:

• There aren’t enough people prepared to perform CPR when someone has a cardiac arrest

• There aren’t enough defibrillators

By having a defibrillator in your community and by training people in CPR, you can play an important part in saving more lives.”

Since 2012, The Scottish Football Partnership and Trust has invested over £200,000 in upskilling around 2,250 coach volunteers in Sports First Aid in conjunction with the Hampden Sports Clinic.

We would like to thank SFP and KFCT for their generous donation of this equipment.

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