International Women’s Day - Jo Brown And The Expansion Of Flyerz Clubs

On March 8th every year, International Women’s Day is celebrated, recognising the incredible achievements of women globally. It also highlights the struggles faced by many in ensuring gender equality.

Hockey is a sport which can be played and enjoyed by anyone and everyone. It can be played in many forms and ,with a theme surrounding inspiring inclusion, this International Women’s Day brings the focus to many inspirational women. 

Jo Brown’s creation of a number of Flyerz clubs, which enables the inclusion of players of all abilities, highlights her contribution to the Hockey community and makes her one of many inspirational women within the sport.

The driving force behind a growing network of Flyerz hockey clubs in the south-east has praised the support she has received from England Hockey and Great Britain hockey players in helping to give more children from disabled backgrounds the chance to pick up a stick and play hockey. 

 Jo Brown, from Surrey, set up her own Flyerz club at Surbiton over five years ago with the support of England Hockey and in response to a lack of provision in her local area. Flyerz Hockey are fun and friendly sessions inclusive of all abilities and ages and enables disabled and non-disabled players to play together, along with the whole family as siblings and parents can get involved as well.

 Said Jo: “I never knew there was a lack of inclusive sport in the area. It literally opened-up my world to this whole new thing. 

I talked to grandparents, teachers and carers who all told me that there was nothing that was free, inclusive and that families could be included in regardless of whether they had a child or an adult with a learning difficulty or disability. 

I thought ‘right I’m going to do something about this’ and I worked with England Hockey and Access Sport and between us we came up with the name Falcon Flyerz.  The help they gave me with training our volunteers for example was great.” 

Brown has since set up projects and sessions in Weybridge, Marlow, Guildford and Epsom and she has also had the opportunity to work with a number of leading Great Britain hockey players: “Working at Surbiton gave me the chance to work with a lot of the GB players. We’ve just done a fundraising initiative and a number of them gave an hour of their time for a silent auction. Alex Malzer helps us a lot and she came through the hockey system with my daughter and she helps run the Marlow Falcon Flyerz. 

The coronavirus pandemic presented a number of difficult challenges but did not stop her providing opportunities for those with disabilities: 

“Covid was really hard but we made packs as the SEN (Special Education Needs) schools were still carrying on so we took packs, made videos and training programmes. We delivered them to the schools with sticks, balls and advice about how to coach. 

“We were very lucky to have the support of so many GB players and when Covid happened. They sent videos with challenges that you could do at home which I put on twitter and sent to schools. That was amazing.”

Looking to the future, Brown wants to expand to able to provide more opportunities for children and adults. She explained: “I want to reach out to more SEN schools. I think that is a challenging area and they need to see you and meet you or have a taster session. That is something that we want to do - have more taster sessions. 

Once an SEN school starts with us, they never stop because they love it. Our goal is to reach more kids, families, SEN schools and get to more locations.”

There are over 50 Flyerz programmes running across the country including the Falcon Flyerz sessions in Surrey and Buckinghamshire.

You can find your local Flyerz club over at https://www.englandhockey.co.uk