Cherries Community Fund has distributed its first set of funds into the local community.

Launched in February 2016, the fund aims to provide financial assistance to projects that help young people and vulnerable groups, or those that promote a healthy lifestyle in Bournemouth.

Funded by the popular Matchday Draw and any other club donations, the Cherries Community Fund has chosen to provide financial support to these three local projects:

- Be Yourself Everybody Else Is Taken - Healthwatch Dorset

A donation of £200 to contribute to the costs of promotional materials for the project. Be Yourself Everybody Else Is Taken is for young people between 11-25 and designed to encourage creative feedback about local health and social care services in Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset.

- Showers – Gillingham Town Youth FC

A donation of £900 towards new shower facilities. Gillingham Town Youth FC is a community football club in rural North Dorset providing safe, positive and rewarding footballing experiences for over 200 boys and girls in Gillingham and the surrounding area.

- Girls football kit – Sir John Colfox Academy

A donation of £300 to cover the cost of new kits for the girls team. The Sir John Colfox Academy is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Bridport. The school has a number of girls football teams, who play a range of fixtures and tournaments throughout the school year.

AFC Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn, longest-serving player Marc Pugh and head of community sports trust Steve Cuss sat on a three-man panel to judge how the first set of funds should be allocated.

And Mostyn was delighted to be able to provide financial support to three worthy causes.

"It’s great to be able to see this money used for the benefit of the local community," commented the chairman.

"As a club, our bond with the local area is unique. And as we continue to progress on the field in the Premier League, it’s vital that we continually reaffirm our status at the heartbeat of the community.

"We hope that this money will help in the aim of promoting active and healthy lifestyles in Bournemouth and I look forward to seeing the Cherries Community Fund help many other worthy causes over the coming years."

Cherries winger Pugh also commented: "As a panel, we deliberated long and hard trying to choose the projects that we felt would benefit most from this funding.

"The process has been a real pleasure to be a part of, and I am looking forward to seeing how the funding will help each project in the long run - I hope it can have a big impact!"