THE Digicel/JFF National Grassroots Programme will stage its first festival today at the Paul Bogle High School in St Thomas, beginning at 9:00 am.

The JFF recently launched a national grassroots programme aimed at growing the sport and building the passion for the game.

The programme targets girls and boys between the ages of 6-12. By mandate, JFF parish associations responsible for the implementation of the programme are expected to include a minimum of 40 per cent of girls.

Over the first year of the programme, 18 festivals are scheduled to be held throughout Jamaica.

Each day’s activities will be divided into two sections. Firstly, a session with grassroots coach educators drawn from the communities. In these sessions, educators will be under the direction of JFF coaches. The aim of these sessions will be mainly to discuss how to encourage this age group, how to facilitate them enjoying the game and how to organise grassroots football festivals. Coach educators must respect children’s physical, psychological and physiological make-up and need not be football coaches.

Secondly, the afternoon sessions will be in the form of a festival which is structured in a way to allow for fun. The assumption is the more kids play, the more they enjoy; the more they enjoy, the more they will want to play; the more they play the more they will learn.

Registration will be an important objective at these sessions as the JFF expects to develop a database out of the activities.

Parish associations have also been mandated to forge relationships with schools and community organisations in the development of the programme.

The day’s activities will end with a community event aimed even more at building the passion for the game.

The Grassroots programme, run by former national player Andre Virtue, is sponsored by Digicel, BIGGA and Wata.

The programme’s tag line is: Grassroots football is football for everyone, by everyone, everywhere.