Caring in our Approach

Social action

A key theme running throughout a number of our youth-led projects is social action - giving something back to the community. Across our Sport England, NCS and Premier League funded projects, we ask participants to develop fundraising or awareness initiatives around causes which are important to them and their communities.

This year, we have seen young people engaged within our projects support some incredible causes across the city. Our Tackle It and GREAT Girls Hub worked together across the summer holidays to organise a school uniform drive to put together back-to-school parcels for families. The initiative had a great response, and they were able to collate 50 packs of uniform and other essentials, like pencil cases and water bottles, to support families whose children were returning to school in September. Our NCS groups worked tirelessly across the summer to support a range of local and national charities, raising over £4,000 in total across four separate weeks of action. Our Changemakers from both our NCS and Premier League Kicks courses continued to work on projects which were meaningful to them, which this year has included taking part in gardening work at a residential home and collecting toiletries and other essentials to create ‘Welcome Packs’ for refugees who are new to the city, as part of the Football Welcomes campaign during April. Our latest cohort of Football and Education students also arranged a charity tournament in memory of their fellow learner who sadly passed away in recent months.

Encouraging participants to be caring in their approach from their youth helps us prepare them to become well-rounded individuals, who are empathetic and think of the needs of others. We’re proud of their ethos and hope to see their efforts continue to develop and flourish.