Wests Ashfield Leagues Club is just down the road from the Ashfield Parish Mission Church and the Exodus Foundation. For decades Wests have been strong supporters of Exodus and the extraordinary endeavours of Rev Bill Crews but their connection and care for the area and community goes way back.

Although once a wealthy suburb with many grand mansions, when Western Suburbs Rugby League club took over the lease of the Benevolent Society building on Liverpool Road in 1955 to form their first licensed club, the Ashfield area was very, proudly working class.

Wests bought the building in 1958 and continued to grow. Not a lot changed socially though. In 1978 Wests coach Roy Masters coined the phrase ‘the fibros and the silvertails’ to describe the social struggle of the sprawling western suburbs against the elite of the city’s north and east.

By 1986 Ashfield had become one of Australia’s most multi cultural suburbs. Bill Crews launched the Exodus Foundation to assist local homeless and abandoned youth and other people in need. The famous Loaves and Fishes free restaurant followed in 1989. Neighboring Wests was always there to help.

Wests Ashfield Leagues Clubs’ original charter was to support Rugby League, primarily the Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club but as the years passed the Club broadened its scope in line with its diverse membership base, to support other sports and the social welfare of the local community.

Today, under the banner of Wests Cares, the Club proudly supports in excess of 90 different sports, community welfare and educational organisations, locally and beyond.

For more information go to the website.

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