Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Rugby League Development sponsors MEARS are continuing their support women’s rugby in Leeds by becoming the main sponsor for the Leeds Rhinos Women’s team for the 2018 season.
MEARS are one of the UK’s leading service providers to both the public and private sector with over 12,000 employees delivering approximately 180,000 hours of care and support each week on behalf of 127 local authorities to support over 30,000 people across the UK.
The specialist housing and care providers joined forces with Leeds Rhinos Foundation in 2013 as Key Partner to of the charity’s Rugby League Development Plan, which has helped increase participation in the game, increase fan engagement and improve standards through coach education and player development.
The plan also has the ambition to get more girls and women involved in Rugby League as players, referees and coaches and this is led by Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Women and Girls Development Officer and Leeds Rhinos Women’s team captain, Lois Forsell.
Craig Simpson, General Manager at MEARS said the company are proud to be part of the Leeds Rhinos Women’s team.
“We’ve been a partner of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation for a number of years now and they do a terrific amount of work that fits really well with our profile and what we like to do with our company,” said Simpson.
“As soon as we heard about the Women’s team it was something we really wanted to get involved in. MEARS as an organisation do a massive amount for women in construction and women in trades.”
The creation of the Women's team is part of Leeds Rhinos' commitment to grow the game and offer more opportunities for females to play Rugby League through its charity Leeds Rhinos Foundation and supports the RFL's own ambition to attract more women to the game after it was revealed that 93 per cent of the current total of 95,000 who play the game are male.
MEARS have been one of the industry leaders in recruiting more women into trades to build a diverse workforce, encouraging more women to join MEARS and others in the Social Housing Building Maintenance sector highlighted through their Tradeswomen into Maintenance project.
Simpson believes there is a perfect fit between the two organisations in promoting women.
“Women are massively underrepresented in the sort of manual work and construction background so we are doing a massive push on that, so this sort of fits really well, because we want to get into schools and get women involved in sport and construction, so we are really proud to be part of it and looking forward to a few games this season.”
Leon Crick, Rugby League Development Plan Manager for Leeds Rhinos Foundation said: "MEARS has been a valued partner of our charity for almost five years and their support has been key to the success of our ambition to develop Rugby League in our city.
“Hundreds of children have engaged with our sport and have been given new opportunities because of the Rugby League Development Plan."
The promotion of the women’s game is a huge part of the Plan and this has been given a massive boost with the creation of the Leeds Rhinos Women’s team and we are hugely grateful to MEARS for supporting the team.”