Optimising Life Chances

we are committed to providing opportunity for all. Our programmes ensure that activity is accessible and removes barries to participation. we are proud to be an inclusive organisation which helps people to find their place.

DCCT Anuual Report 2022

Optimising Life Chances

Many of our participants come to our programmes at a disadvantage – whether through their family background, financial difficultly, educational attainment or health inequality. All our projects have a united aim to optimise life chances and level the playing field for all to achieve.

The extension of our holiday activity to include food provision directly stems from this aim to provide an equitable service. Holiday Activity and Food is a governmentfunded initiative which supports children who usually receive benefits-based free school meals in the school holidays. However, the funding is only available during the longer holidays of Christmas, Easter and summer, so our staff wanted to ensure this offer become holistic. Granted funding by our board, our first Rams Family Support holiday programme took place over October and provided free activity and lunches for children on the programme and also worked with our Health team to devise a series of healthy recipes accompanied by the ingredients to make additional meals. Our Schools and Coaching team continue their support of school pupils through our Premier League Primary Stars intervention activities: Matchday Maths, Reading and Writing Stars and Resilient Rammie. The sessions work with identified children to use football as an inspirational tool to support curriculum delivery and engage children who may not respond to traditional modes of teaching. Our Education and Employability department epitomise our ability to cater for the individual learner. The extension of our Employability delivery this year through the Prince’s Trust SCORE programme has allowed us to work with 300 young people and promote opportunities in the Health and Social Care sector. Our Traineeships continue to provide opportunities to young people not in education, employment or training, offering the chance to gain qualifications in a relaxed and supportive environment. This is supported by the chance to undertake work experience in a wide variety of fields. We continue to develop our Further and Higher Education provision, with over 200 learners joining us for their post-16 studies this year. We have extended our geographical reach once more to provide an opportunity to combine training and playing football with gaining qualifications at a range of levels. Fundamentally, we offer the chance to join us at a foundation level at both post-16 and degree level, to ensure we are making our courses accessible for students from a range of backgrounds and circumstances that may not reach criteria elsewhere. Our commitment to enriching students’ education provides hands-on opportunities, both within the Trust and beyond. This year, we have seen three students finishing their qualifications join us in full-time employment, testament to the quality of experience and guidance we strive to offer. From next year, we are diversifying our study options even further, with three separate degree pathways becoming available, along with a media-based programme for post-16 students, providing the best opportunities that we can to cater for all interests. Building on from the work of our community outreach projects, we deliver further targeted activity to young people that may find mainstream education provision difficult. Our PL Kicks Targeted programme works with participants on an individual basis, to find and develop their personal targets and motivations, with the long-term aim of integrating them back into full-time education. This model of work is exemplified through the Opportunity Area Inclusion Project. We led a consortium of partners to support over 800 young people at risk of exclusion, through engaging with their interests, wants and needs rather than trying to make conventional educational delivery work for them. Continuing our work within the education setting, our Winning Minds team deliver a robust programme of activity to young people, helping them to deal with emotion and stress – particularly around major milestones, including sitting exams and moving from primary to secondary school. Their work aims to reduce worries, build confidence and self-esteem and provide coping mechanisms. Where students need further wellbeing support, our communitybased Tackle It and GREAT Girls hubs offer additional sessions to ensure we our approach is holistic. Mental wellbeing is core to our adult delivery too, with our Team Talk hubs continuing to provide males with a safe space to talk across the city. 80 regular attendees are supported by the social sessions which simply encourage men to talk about their problems in a supportive environment. 2022 was a key year for one of our flagship programmes, Active Choices, as it celebrated ten years of delivery. Its key aim is to support participants in their recovery from substance and alcohol addiction, and through commemorating the programme’s delivery we were reminded of just how many people’s life chances we have been able to impact and optimise.