THE first venture by the new partnership between Cowdenbeath Football Club and the Blue Brazil has proved a huge success.

Earlier this month, Cowden in the Community and Blue Brazil youth football club announced their intention to join up under the Central Park Community Trust.

One of the aims of the partnership is to provide football for the youngest to the oldest. Recognising that the cost of living is an issue for many parents and not wanting to see children denied activities due to financial pressures, the community trust worked together with the SFA and the 4 Winds Trust, to provide free sessions to kids aged 18 months to three years, and three-to-five.

The younger group will be named the Blue Brazil Boomers and the sessions are designed to be fun, to develop motor skills and instil good habits in physical activity at a young age.

The sessions for 3-5 years are called Blue Brazil Kickers and these sessions are an introduction to football and will feed into the Blue Brazil teams at five years of age for those that want to play competitive football.

These sessions were launched on Friday evening and were fully booked within hours. To further assist with the cost of living, and again with assistance from the 4 Winds Trust, Cowden in the Community are also cutting costs for its next set of sessions for primary school boys and girls. Instead of £4.50 per session, they are providing sessions at £3 until the Easter break.

Dean Ewing, Cowden in the Community development manager, said: “It’s fantastic to see our partnership with Blue Brazil have such an immediate impact, in firstly providing sessions for the very young, but to fill up the sessions in such a short time shows that there is a real demand in the Cowdenbeath area, and hopefully it helps out families who are maybe feeling the financial impact of the current cost of living crisis.

“Also cutting the costs of our primary school girls and boys sessions will help parents to keep their children active at a very low cost. There are still places available on these sessions but they will fill up quickly. Details can be found on our Twitter and Facebook pages. We would like to publicly thank the 4 Winds Trust for its financial assistance, which allows us to offer these sessions. If we can attract further funding, we will look to provide extra free or discounted sessions to help families in the area.”