A very successful Rugby league launch of the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme took place at the Bradford Bulls vs. Hull FC match on Sunday 15th March. The event was attended by Richard Lewis and Sarah Williams (RFL), Peter Hood (Bradford Bulls), Gerry Sutcliffe (MP and Minister of Sport) and Dave Small (Stonewall) (pictured above) as well as representatives from local Lesbian Gay Bisexual (LGB) organisations and statutory and voluntary organisations such as Bradford and Leeds Councils and West Yorkshire Police. The launch was also an opportunity to showcase work taking place in the game which involves and includes LGB people both as employees, players, coaches, fans, club staff and volunteers;

•LGBTemployeesforumopentoallRFLandclubemployees and volunteers, players, coaches, match officials and other support staff

•LGBTfansforumrunbyBradfordMesmac

•Stonewallchartersignedbyall13oftheBritishSuperLeague clubs

•InformationpacksprovidedbyStonewallsenttoall34professional clubs - there are still some more packs available if any community clubs would like them

As a result of this early work several clubs have made a commitment to work with the LGB communities - Salford City Reds have further strengthened their links to the local LGBT community and Pride Sports and will be attending the Manchester Pride games as well as other planned activities and Halifax RLFC will be attending the first Calderdale Pride event, other clubs are in the early stages of setting up partnerships with their local LGBT communities.

IfyourclubwouldliketoengagewithyourlocalLGBTcommunity please contact Sarah Williams who will be happy to facilitate links, partnerships and support plans to work together.

RFL Launch stonewall Diversity Champions programme

issue 5 | may 09

p1

In League TogeThernewsletter

stonewall charterWe, the undersigned Rugby Football League club, have

agreed to work with the RFL and Stonewall to challenge

homophobia and work together to create an inclusive and

welcoming environment for lesbian, gay and bisexual people

at matches and all aspects of club life.

Bradford Bulls Peter Hood (Chairman) Ryan Duckett (General Manager)

Castleford Tigers Richard Wright (CEO)

Celtic Crusaders Anthony Seibold (Football Manager)

Harlequins RL Petra Walsh (Operations Manager)

Huddersfield Giants Richard Thewlis (Managing Director)

Hull FC James Rule (Chief Executive)

Hull KR Neil M Hudgell (Chairman)

Leeds Rhinos Gary Hetherington (CEO)

Salford City Reds David Tarry (CEO)

St Helens Tony Colquitt (Chief Executive)

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Francis Stephenson (General Manager) John Kear (Coach)

Warrington Wolves Andrew Gatcliffe (CEO)

Wigan Warriors IanLenagan(Chairman)

Mick Hogan (Chief Executive)

Statements from Clubs:

Salford “We are working in this area via community teams.”

Wakefield “The Wildcats are happy to support The

Stonewall Diveristy Champions Project and look forward

to being involved in achieving this initiatives aims. This

partnership complements our existing community activity

whilst reinforcing our established social inclusion policy.”

Warrington “As always we are happy to support projects

of this nature. The project will interface with Equality and

Diversity Policy already in place at Warrington Wolves.”

Celtic Crusaders

have ventured

into a partnership

with two Special

Educational

Needs schools

in Bridgend by

offering Rugby League coaching sessions for forty children.

The disability pilot project has been put together as a

new drive in partnership with the Disability Sport Wales

programme within the Local Authority.

Three weekly sessions have been put together at both

Ysgol Bryn Castell and Heronsbridge schools, with twenty

pupils from each school being put through their paces

by the Celtic Crusaders community coaching staff. The

sessions will enable the students to experience the different

elements of Rugby League as well as being offered an

insight into one of the most popular competitions in the UK.

Disability Sport Wales Development Officer, Huw Griffiths

said “This is a great chance for all the pupils to experience

a new sport and join in the excitement of the Super League

coming to South Wales, in particular Bridgend. The Celtic

Crusaders have been extremely supportive in providing

these opportunities and it is hoped that it is a partnership

that will continue to flourish”.

p2

Federation of Disability sports Organisations awards evening

issue 5 | may 09

Celtic Crusaders coaching disabled children

newsletter

Following our search for audio

commentators the RFL are delighted

to say that on Sunday 19th April

twelve volunteers attended a full day

RoyalNationalInstitutefortheBlind

(RNIB)trainingtobecomeaudio

commentators. The session was

facilitated by Harvey Wiles, pictured

above, who said the day was hugely

successful with a very high standard of audio commentary

already achieved. Those who attended are now able to

offer their services to local clubs and centrally organised

matches such as Magic Weekend.

Ifyourclubwouldliketoknowmoreaboutaudio

commentary equipment or would like the contact details

of the audio commentators, who are based throughout

the UK, including South Wales and London please contact

Sarah Williams. At club level in the last few days we have

linked audio commentators to Halifax, Hull and Warrington

clubs and look forward to offering this service across many

more clubs in the near future.

RFL now has 12 trained audio commentators!

Rugby League swept the board at the Federation of Disability

Sports Yorkshire awards on Friday 20th March winning five

awards. At the celebratory evening held at Elland Road, Gill

Johnson spoke about the incredible hard work and dedication

from players, coaches, match officials and other team support

which led to the Wheelchair Tag Rugby Team winning the

World Cup in Australia. At the awards evening the RFL were

awarded the Cyril Villiers governing body award for the second

year running in recognition of the work the governing body is

doing to make the game more accessible to disabled people.

14yearoldHarrisonBrown,akeymemberofthewheelchair

team as well as other wheelchair sports, won the award for

Young Achiever (boy category) . Andy Atkinson won a Special

Award to recognise his hard work in promoting and playing the

sport. The Regan Cooper Team of the Year award went to the

England Wheelchair team and finally the Baroness Masham

Excellence in Wheelchair Sport went to the player of the World

Cup tournament Andrew Wharton. Well done to everyone

involved in wheelchair tag rugby!

Bme History project moving forward!

p3

RFL working to include deaf and hearing impaired communities

RFL coach Tom Allen attended

the National Deaf Children’s

Sports (NDCS) event at John

Charles Centre for Sport to

coach rugby skills to young

deafchildren.Itwasahugely

successful event with the

young people particularly

enjoying the rugby league

element to the day. We hope to take part in further events and to

work with NDCS on further projects.

NDCS also completed filming the top 50 rugby terms in British

Sign Language at the Harlequins featuring players Tony Clubb,

Will Sharp, Luke May and Ben Kaye. This resource will be

available to download shortly. We hope more people who are

deaf or have a hearing impairment will consider getting involved

in Rugby League and the RFL will support clubs to meet the

communication needs of deaf players, coaches and staff.

Finally the RFL coaching department plan to offer one signed

Level 1 coaching course per year, if you know anyone from the

deaf community that would like to train as a Rugby League

coach please contact Arvinder at RFL Arvinder.kaur@rfl.uk.com

issue 5 | may 09

OnFridaythe24th

April Eccles College

in association with

Folly Lane ARLFC

and Salford City Reds

Foundation hosted

a rugby league

festival. The festival,

organised by Val Wakefield of Folly Lane, was an extremely

inclusive day of workshops and demonstrations. With students

from Chatsworth High School a special educational needs

school playing alongside students from St John’s RC Primary

in Chorlton as well as students from Eccles College.

The students were also given the chance to try their hand

at Wheelchair rugby league as England Wheelchair Rugby

League players and coach Phil Roberts were on hand to

coach and demonstrate their sport to all the students who

attended, even players from Salford City Reds academy and

Reds stars Phil Leuluai, Jack Spencer and Lewis Palfrey had

a go. The festival was a great success and gave coaches and

students alike the opportunity to see how inclusive a sport

rugby league really is.

The coaching delivered by Tony Griffin, Folly Lane, and

demonstrations from young Folly players and Reds academy

players where a great showcase of the skill needed to play

rugbyleague.Itwasalsogreattoseestudentsofmixed

abilities working together and even better still, rugby league

was the sport being used to bring people together that

normally wouldn’t cross paths.

Bringing people together in salford

newsletter

We are delighted to say that a number of individual clubs as well

as Playing for Success centres at Wakefield Wildcats, Halifax

RLFC and Huddersfield Giants have taken the lead in this exciting

initiative and are working together to create profiles of past and

present BME players, coaches, match officials, club staff and

volunteers of both professional and community clubs. We plan

to launch this project in time for Black History Month in October

2009 offering web based resources covering each individuals

personal and family biography, their Rugby League biography as

well as reasons why they got involved in the sport in the

first instance.

We still need clubs to get involved so that we can put together

a comprehensive collection of resources celebrating BME

involvementacrossthegame.Ifyourclubwouldliketoget

involved please contact Sarah Williams who will put you in touch

with other clubs and researchers that could help and support

your work.

picture from Huddersfield

The RFL is working alongside local Rugby League clubs

to develop links with faith forums and those community

workers engaging with BME communities as part of its

equalities agenda to overcome barriers to participation and

create a welcoming environment for everyone whatever

their race, religion, faith or belief.

As part of this scheme a number of religious and

community leaders were invited to watch the recent

Carnegie World Club Challenge match at Elland Road.

Inordertoencourageguestsfromfaithcommunitieswe

provided hospitality with a vegetarian buffet, no alcohol and

the room was converted into a prayer room ten minutes

prior to the match kicking off. These efforts resulted in an

excellent response from religious leaders as for many it was

their first match and proved to be a huge success.

Such an enjoyable experience has sparked a real

enthusiasm for the game with guests now keen to work

with their local clubs to introduce Rugby League into their

communities. Significant developments and partnerships

are beginning to happen in Batley, Bradford, Leeds,

Keighley and Oldham with work in other areas planned.

IfyourclubisbasedinanareawithahighBMEpopulation

which does not currently access your club as players,

coaches or spectators then contact Sarah Williams who

will be delighted to support the club and work to develop

partnershipswithlocalBMEandfaithgroups.Inthewords

of Beeston Broncos chair Phil Goodfield “We want all our

rugby clubs to strive towards becoming genuine community

clubs not just clubs within the community”

p4

Rugby League developments in europe

issue 5 | may 09newsletter

Links with Bme & Faith communities

alternative formats The RFL has a commitment to providing information in alternate formats. To date we have copies of the RFL Laws of the Game - theofficialrulebook-onaudiotape.IfyouwouldlikeanfurtherRFL documents or information in an audio format please contact Sarah Williams and we will endeavour to meet your needs.

Dorcol vs. Belgrade University

Super League has made history in Central, Eastern and South

Eastern Europe. On 20th February Super League was broadcast

on Sport Klub TV regional sport TV for Central, Eastern and

South Eastern Europe. This was start just start of broadcasting

Super League games in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia,

Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Montenegro. This will help raise

the profile of the game in Central Europe which may then have

benefits to Rugby League clubs working to engage with Eastern

European communities in their area. For more information on

developments in Europe and beyond please see

www.rlef.eu.com

Contact

For information on any of the articles or projects included

pleasecontactSarahWilliamson01132375037oremail

sarah.williams@rfl.uk.com

For more information on any of the articles in this newsletter please contact Sarah Williams at: RFL,RedHall,RedHallLane,Leeds,LS178NB tel 0113 2375037 or email sarah.williams@rfl.uk.com