New name: ! Football United !

The UNSW Refugee Soccer Development Program has a new name – one “born” at the recent summer camp that we ran with STARTTS and the Auburn Migrant Resource Centre in January 2007.

! Football United ! started as the UNSW Refugee Soccer Development Program at the end of 2005 as a program to help kids and parents from refugee backgrounds to be able to join Australian life in harmony and fun. In essence it is a social harmony building program using Football aka Soccer as its vehicle. We think that by offering opportunities to play and engage in soccer through clubs, clinics, galas and other activities we can provide opportunities to bring people together in Australian life with fun and purpose.

Now we are more than a year old, but we needed a fun and exciting name – a name that stimulates people to want to join us and help our program develop. The nickname first used at our launch in August 2006 was “Football Fun”.

But for us it didn’t convey the uniting foundation our program has.

Donations from Macquarie Bank, the Mary McKillop Foundation, Spartan Sporting Goods Pty Ltd, enabled us to join with STARTTS and the Auburn Migrant Resource Centre to hold our first residential summer camp in early January of this year.
A naming competition at the camp produced a number of proposals from the boys, with
! Football United ! voted unanimously as the best.

We’re excited – to have a name born from the enthusiasm for our program - one that conveys hope and harmony. With this announcement comes a call for assistance – we need support - lots of it – to be able to continuing helping build our dream of uniting through football. Please contact us at ab.birouste@unsw.edu.au to offer your help!