Falmouth Community Football Club has been awarded £1,000 to recognise its commitment to widening its presence in the local community and encouraging more youngsters to get involved in the sport.

Cornwall FA has only awarded this Community Shield Grassroots grant to five football clubs across the county, so this is seen as a real coup to this local club that has has transformed and flourished in the last two years.

Cornwall FA handed over the cheque at Falmouth Community Football’s annual summer party recently.

Janine Kennedy, chair of Falmouth Community Football Club, said: "We are delighted with this grant. It will help us to further develop the community side of our football, buying new equipment and training further coaches to meet the needs of our growing club."

It will also help us to reach out to encourage more girls to take up football. We are hoping that we will be able to field a girls’ team in the future in addition to the U9s, 2 x U10s, U11s and U12s teams that we are already running.’

The grant was awarded to the club in recognition that:

• The club created an outreach programme to engage with the wider community.

• Has engaged with groups who are typically hard to reach and provided recreational football opportunities.

• Has increased its community presence and worked hard to make the football club the heart of the local community.

Richard Pallot from Cornwall FA, said: "The money has come from The FA Community Shield Distribution fund and as a County we were asked to identify clubs who have made real strides over the last couple of years and have really engaged with the local community, something Falmouth Community have really done, the club continues to go from strength to strength and we hope this award will help.”

If you would like to find out more about taking part in Falmouth Community Football, visit the facebook page Falmouth Community Youth Football.

If you would like more information please contact Helen Allies helen.allies@sky.com