Surrey FA were double award winners at the annual County FA Recognition Awards on Thursday 23rd November. 

The Awards, which were hosted at Wembley Stadium connected by EE, recognise and endorse the best projects, products and services delivered by County FAs over the past season while sharing best practice and learnings from around the country.

A record-breaking 242 submissions were entered from the 50 County FA’s, highlighting continuous improvements and innovation within the grassroots game, with Surrey FA being shortlisted across three different categories - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Partnerships and Youth Engagement.

Surrey FA won the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award for our Unite Through Football: Refugees project. The project, which is now in its second season after securing a partnership with leading accommodation provider SBHL, provides football opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers who are currently residing in temporary accommodation across the South-East. The ground-breaking programme has already supported over 200 participants and aims to further extend the provision to support displaced people to integrate into their local community. 

We picked up a second award, winning the Youth Engagement category in recognition of our Youth Forum. Reformed in 2022, the Surrey FA Youth Forum provides a platform for young people to use their voices to influence positive change in Surrey. The Chair of the Youth Forum sits on the main SFA Board, and the group represents a wide cross-section of the Surrey community, with 38% of its members identifying as females and a further 38% from historically underrepresented groups. Within their first season, the group have worked across multiple projects and been fully integrated into the organisation, ensuring that youth voice is influential at all levels of strategic development.  

We were also recognised for our partnership with Thorpe Park Resort, being shortlisted for the Partnership Award. The partnership, which was announced earlier this year, supports youth grassroots football across the county through the sponsorship of the Thorpe Park Youth Cups and hosting Surrey FA’s own local grassroots awards at the theme park.

Sally Lockyer, Surrey FA Chief Executive Officer, was in attendance and said: 

“The evening was a great celebration of all the county FA’s achievements and highlighted the hard work the network continues to provide with the aim of developing the grassroots game. From a Surrey FA perspective, we are delighted that our innovative and ground-breaking work has been recognised on a national level and proud that we have received awards for two of our leading initiatives, whilst being shortlisted in a further category.”