Benjamin’s Story: Building Confidence Through Football

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Benjamin has gone from the boy without the confidence to talk to anyone, to the man coaching the sessions in less than a year thanks to Aston Villa’s ‘Think Football’ project.

Benjamin joined Think Football, which is Villa’s mental health and wellbeing football project, in 2017. Ben has mild learning difficulties and suffers with psychosis, which effects his mental health causing a range of symptoms including anxiety and depression.

Ben lives in supported housing and often relies on a support worker for everyday situations. Prior to joining Think Football, he was very introverted, not comfortable in social situations and rarely involved in external activities.

Ben’s support worker suggested that the Think Football sessions would work for Ben as they offer support for a wide range of mental health issues.  His support worker accompanied Ben at the beginning and he soon became a regular weekly attendee.

When Ben first started the sessions, he was extremely quiet and would not make eye contact with anyone he did not know. Gradually as the sessions progressed he was able to come in and say hello to all the staff and hold a conversation with eye contact.

Ian Robinson, Aston Villa Foundation Coach who has known Ben from day 1 commented: “When Ben started he was very quiet and shy but since taking part in Think Football he has become more confident and outgoing”.

During the programme, Ben not only started to develop his football skills but also improved his communication and social skills.

A few months after first attending, Ben had begun to make friends through the programme, and was invited with some of the other members of the sessions to go to the cinema.  His support worker said it was a massive step forward and made him feel accepted within a group.

Over the last few months he has started attending the sessions on his own, making his own way from home to the sessions and back again. When the coaches asked for anyone who wanted to step up and support by taking a warm up, Ben surprised everyone by volunteering to have a go.

In April this year, Villa offered participants the chance to complete a fully funded FA Level 1 as part of the programme. Ben immediately volunteered and due to his commitment and the personal journey was selected to complete the course. Due to his learning difficulties Villa provided some extra support to complete the online part of the course.

Thanks to a lot of hard work he completed his FA Level 1. He said: ‘The Level 1 has helped me to design fun and engaging football sessions so that I can assist at Think Football. It has made me feel more organised and confident to do more things.”

Ben has shown himself to be a good level 1 coach, and is now supporting Villa’s Think Football sessions. With mentoring support from our coaches, he will go on to develop further and would like to complete his FA Level 2.

Mind

Mind are the official charity partner of EFL. With over 21 million fans attending EFL matches each season (and 55 million watching on TV), this partnership is a brilliant opportunity for us to promote awareness and understanding of mental health amongst football fans, and to help more people living with mental health problems access the support they need.

Together we are harnessing the power of football to raise awareness of mental health, improve the approach to mental health in sport and raise funds to deliver life changing national and local support.

www.Mind.org.uk/OnYourSide

Text FOOTBALL to 70660 to donate £3 to Mind, and help make sure no one has to face a mental health problem alone.

Cambridge United’s ‘Mind Your Head’ project creates significant results in Mental Health literacy in schools

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Earlier this year, Cambridge United Community Trust (CUCT) established a secondary school mental health project to improve wellbeing and help young people deal better with stress and anxiety and this week, an evaluation of the project, conducted by Leeds Beckett University, reveals statistically significant improvements in mental health literacy are made as a result of the programme, across all genders and ethnicities.

The greatest improvements were seen across questions including increasing understanding of dealing with stress, the causes of poor mental health and recognising the signs of poor mental health.

The ‘Mind Your Head’ pilot has been running since January 2018 in six central Cambridge secondary schools and reached over 500 young people by the end of the school summer term.

The project is part of Cambridge United’s wider commitment to promoting positive mental health at the club and in the community.

‘Mind Your Head’ is delivered through CUCT in partnership with Cambridge youth mental health charity ‘Centre 33’. The programme provides lessons that destigmatize mental health, educate young people about how to deal with stress and also encourage young people to discuss how social media can both positively and negatively affect their wellbeing.

Report author Professor Jonathan Glazzard said: “Mind Your Head is a great example of the education sector working with a Football Club in their community to improve an issue of vital importance.

“Many people are still reluctant to talk about their mental health, so it’s empowering when footballers talk publically about their issues, such as stress and looking after their own mental health.

“They tend to have experienced their own mental health issues: athletes have a perfectionist trait that provides them with the motivation to succeed, but also has drawbacks in terms of the associated pressures.

“The work being undertaken in Cambridge has shown significant improvements in mental health literacy among the pupils involved. This sort of initiative, carried out on a national scale, could only help improve knowledge and understanding of mental health among school children.”

Josh Turner, one of the pupils who took part from Trumpington Community College said: “Footballers coming in to tell us about mental health is actually quite profound because they are people that young people look up to as their idols.

“The footballers telling us that they sometimes struggle with their mental health is good to listen to and good for our own understanding.”

Sam Squire, a Cambridge United scholar who has been actively involved at schools said: “It’s important for Cambridge United to focus on mental health in schools as that’s when issues such as social media can challenge a young person’s confidence and resilience.

“As a football club we can hopefully use our respected position in society to help promote positive mental health.”

Information from Leeds Beckett University and the full evaluation can be read here: http://d269m6jxkto3yp.cloudfront.net/assets/files/1230/mind_your_head_evaluation_report.pdf

Mind

Mind are the official charity partner of EFL. With over 21 million fans attending EFL matches each season (and 55 million watching on TV), this partnership is a brilliant opportunity for us to promote awareness and understanding of mental health amongst football fans, and to help more people living with mental health problems access the support they need.

Together we are harnessing the power of football to raise awareness of mental health, improve the approach to mental health in sport and raise funds to deliver life changing national and local support.

www.Mind.org.uk/OnYourSide

Text FOOTBALL to 70660 to donate £3 to Mind, and help make sure no one has to face a mental health problem alone.

Tranmere Rovers’ ‘Kip On The Essar Kop’ raises over £10,000 for homeless charities

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Over 50 people gave up their Friday night last week to raise very important money and awareness for several local charities across the Wirral.

Tranmere Rovers In The Community’s ‘Kip On The Essar Kop’ is an event where participants sleep outdoors over night on the Essar Kop stand.

The percentage of people sleeping rough throughout the country has risen by 169% and given that the North West region has the biggest impact, it is definitely a cause for concern of the local area.

The participants arrived from 5pm at Prenton Park and that was where they stayed until 6am the following morning, some of who, travelled to Morecambe a few hours later for Tranmere Rovers’ game at 3pm.

Some brought sleeping bags, others brought cardboard boxes to help shelter themselves from a bitterly cold night. Volunteers kindly stayed on hand to give soup and hot drinks to everyone, in order to keep body heat at a safe temperature.

So far, over £10,000 has been raised by sponsors, businesses and participants and Tranmere Rovers would like to wholeheartedly thank everyone who has contributed in any way, either monetary or with their time, for making this event so worthwhile and successful.

Rovers have worked closely with Wirral Ark in order for Kip on the Essar Kop to take place and their Chief Executive Aydin Djemal told Wirral View: “Kip on the Kop came about, originally when we were doing a bit of work with Tranmere.

“We came up with the idea of a sleep out and having a kip somewhere. Then fantastically, this idea of Kip on the Kop came about.

“The money that has been raised will be split across homeless charities all over the Wirral.”

To find out more about Tranmere Rovers’ work in the local community and wider, please get in touch with the Community department by emailing [email protected].

 

Fleetwood Town Community Trust launch new Community Sports College

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Fleetwood Town Community Trust are pleased to announce the launch of their brand-new Community Sports College.

The Community Sports College will be based at Fleetwood Town’s elite training complex, Poolfoot Farm in Thornton, and will deliver a BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Sport.

Over the past four years, over 60 students have been on the course, with the new Community Sports College building on the success of previous years, whilst providing a pathway of education delivered by the Community Trust.

The Community Trust are looking to provide a pathway; offering traineeships in employability, Level 2 and 3 BTEC awards in Sport to school leavers, followed by foundation degree’s in relevant sporting areas such as sports business and sports coaching.

The BTEC programme has grown year-on-year with the past year being the most successful yet, with the students crowned National Champions in EFL Trust Futsal (Find out more about EFL Trust Futsal here), and winning the North West 11-a-side league.

More importantly though is the classroom success. Having 100% of students complete and pass the course, and 85% achieving on or way above their initial target grade, and 71% progressing onto universities such as Loughborough, Manchester, Edge Hill and Lancaster.

The Community Sports College will allow Fleetwood Town Community Trust to build on their success and grow their education provision further. Expanding their offer to encompass a further and higher education pathway into the sport and leisure industry for local students in the Wyre and Fylde community.

This will offer unique opportunities for ambitious football fans to represent and learn at Fleetwood Town, gain unique work experience opportunities within the football club and to gain industry recognized coaching qualifications. Which will all help towards gaining university places, scholarships abroad and employment in the industry.

Matt Hilton, the Community Trust Chief Executive spoke about the launch and how it can help develop people, and also help students with their further education in sport. He said: “Colleges have traditionally placed academic learning at the core of the curriculum, supported by employability for the world of work.

“By comparison, Fleetwood Town Community Sports College will ensure academic learning is intrinsically linked to our distinctive experience, which places character development and employability at the core of what we do.

“We believe in delivering education that is so much more than a qualifications.”

Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton added: “The work the Community Trust does is unbelievable and after hearing about the Community Sports College launch, I fully endorse their new programme.

“It was great to meet a couple of students and find out about the work that they’re getting up to, and I look forward to checking back in with the students later in the year.”

To find our more about Fleetwood Town Community Trust visit: http://fleetwoodtownfcct.com/new/ 

World Cerebral Palsy Day: Mason and Zak Loving Football at Tranmere

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Saturday 6th October, is World Cerebral Palsy Day.  To raise awareness of the 17 million people across the world living with cerebral palsy and another 350 million people who are closely connected to someone with cerebral palsy we are focusing on Tranmere Rovers in the Community’s disability football sessions.  Rovers have provided two young fans with the opportunity to participate in the sport they love in a safe and friendly atmosphere.

Ten-year-old Mason and his friend, Zak, aged eight, both have cerebral palsy but that does not stop either of them putting on their football boots and playing the beautiful game.

“I love coming to the sessions and playing football with my friends,” admitted Mason. “We get to play matches too, so I am exercising on a regular basis. I started watching football when I was just three years old and I have now been attending the football sessions at Tranmere for the last four years.”

Explaining how he started playing football, Zak said:

“I played football with my Grandad in the park before my first session at Tranmere when I was six. I come along to Tranmere Rovers games now too and I watch football with my Dad. With the sessions, I love that we get to train and play matches against each other every week.”

The disability football sessions are run on a weekly basis at Prenton Park in the indoor Recreation Centre and each session is always busy with children enjoying the training sessions led by our fully qualified coaches.

The disability football sessions are open for children aged 6-11 years old on a Wednesday from 4-5pm, and on a Tuesday 4-5pm for children aged 11-16 years old. Both Mason and Zak hope by sharing their stories, it will encourage more to start playing the game.

Mason said:

“It is really good fun playing with people who have similar disabilities and do not let anything hold you back, go and have fun like we are doing!”

Zak added:

“It is a great chance to make some new friends. You have to take every opportunity play and if you ever think you are not good enough, you have got to just keep doing and enjoy playing as that is the important thing.”

Strong words from two young men, and Tranmere Rovers in the Community coach, Faye Jones, who runs the sessions, praised both Mason and Zak for sharing their stories.

“They are two great lads and they are an absolute pleasure to coach. They are both very enthusiastic and love playing football.  They are a real inspiration and they want to help more children to follow in their footsteps and play football or participate in any sport.”

Tranmere Rovers in the Community run disability sessions for all ages, for more information, please contact Faye via email – [email protected] or call 0151 6082354.

 

What we did this summer! Our NCS teens spent over 129,630 hours working in their communities, raising over £90,000 for good causes.

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This summer 1000’s of teenagers abseiled off mountains, canoed down lakes, made new friends and pushed their limits. They then learned new skills like first aid, budgeting and cooking, before spending time helping other in their communities.

These teenagers were taking part in the National Citizen Service (NCS) with the EFL Trust network of EFL football clubs and youth organisations in Yorkshire and Humber.

Across the region 4,321  young people aged between 15-17 took part in NCS this summer. These young people delivered an impressive 340 projects in their community and raised over £90,000 for good causes. NCS takes place over four phases.

Phase one is ‘adventure’ teens spend a week away pushing their limits with activities such as rock climbing, abseiling, and canoeing.  Rotherham MP Sir Kevin Barron joined a group from Rotherham United on a caving and abseiling trip, he said,

“NCS is fantastic. I wish we’d have something like this when I was young where you could get away for four days and learn about life outside the classroom”

A summer graduate who did NCS with Grimsby Town comments,

“I had the best summer ever! I made lots of friends and pushed myself to new limits that I would not have done without the support of my new friends and leaders”

Phase two sees young people split into teams, they will then learn life skills including budgeting, first aid and cooking.  This summer one group in Barnsley received a massive surprise when they were visited by youtube sensation Emma Blackery, Emma commented,

“Just seeing the team work from people that didn’t know each other a few weeks ago and to see how close they have become is amazing”

Here’s the full video of Emma visit

Phase three sees teams plan and create a community action project and spend at least 30 hours making their project happen, be it a fundraising event, time spent rejuvenating a local park or even a family fun day.

This year the 340 social action projects made a massive difference across Yorkshire and Humber. These included

A graduate from Barnsley sums up what the NCS experience gives young people

“I absolutely loved NCS! I met some amazing people and made so many amazing memories. I gained confidence and became a lot more independent. It was such a fantastic experience.”

Finally phase four is celebration or graduation. Graduates get together to celebrate their summer.  Dame Rosie Winterton, MP for joined Doncaster Rovers graduates at their celebration event, she said

 “It was a real pleasure to meet with the NCS 2018 Doncaster graduates.  Their shared experiences, the skills learnt they have learnt will last them a lifetime and give a real foundation for them to build on in their communities.”

 

 

Walsall Players Encourage Kids to be ‘Super Movers’

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Saddlers players Liam Roberts and Jordon Sangha visited pupils at Caldmore Primary Academy to take part in a BBC Super Movers live lesson.

The players joined the school’s Year 6 pupils as they took part in a Shapes and Spaces lesson, broadcast live from Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.  Super Movers is a partnership between the Premier League and BBC which aims to inspire primary school children to get physically active. The initiative provides resources that help children across the UK with curriculum linked activities.

The live lesson showed the children how to work out the likes of area and perimeter of shapes, as well as looking at symmetry and co-ordinates during the hour.

The group were then able to put their questions to Roberts and Sangha, in a Q&A session with the two Saddlers. Alex Moore, Premier League Primary Stars Officer, said:

‘It was good to be involved in the Super Movers live lesson and it was great to see the children enjoying it!“Having Liam and Jordon here has really helped the class engage with the activities and they interacted really well with Year 6.”

The Rising Stars of Community Football

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Rising stars from the world of community football have been formally recognised by the University of South Wales in partnership with the English Football League Trust for their efforts in promoting the sport across the UK.

Students based at Premier League and EFL clubs have emerged as regional and national winners in the 2018 USW/EFL Trust Student Awards after nominees were selected from students working towards the USW Foundation Degree in Community Football Coaching and Development.

Based at professional clubs nationwide, students are supported in completing their degree qualification remotely via a blended learning platform – an innovative approach that places the learner within the industry setting and enables them to apply their knowledge alongside study accordingly.

Launched in 2014 as a joint venture between USW and the EFL Trust to provide a solid theoretical and practical foundation of professional coaching skills, as well as opportunities to acquire nationally recognised vocational qualifications, the degree course also serves to identify up and coming industry talent through its annual awards scheme.

Starting with a shortlist of regionally selected nominations, the national winners in this year’s Academic Student of the Year and Professional Practice Award categories have now been announced.

In the Academic Student of the Year Award category Sheffield United’s Andrew Kempson was named as the National Academic Student of the Year for Year One students and Wigan Athletic student Sean Rowlinson was named as the National Academic Student of the Year for Year Two. Both candidates impressed the awards panel with outstanding grades and an unprecedented commitment to supporting their fellow students.

In the Professional Practice Award category Wigan Athletic’s Megan Dykes took the National Professional Practice Award for Year One students after demonstrating a considerable amount of time dedicated towards promoting community sports projects and her appetite for promoting her own personal development via the attendance at a number of varied sports coaching courses in addition to her USW commitments.

Across Year Two students it was Portsmouth’s Mark Corbett who claimed the National Professional Practice Award title. Mark has used his experiences to develop and promote valuable and enjoyable learning opportunities with learners to enhance their football ability within and around the Portsmouth community.

Course leader Jay Probert explained:

“These awards serve to highlight the wealth of up and coming talent the professional football environment has to draw on both via the University of South Wales and industry wide. As a pioneering course provider seeking to provide students with an ‘industry-ready’ approach, the team here at USW are heartened and delighted evidence of such dedication and commitment continues to come to light.”

Selected by a panel of USW academics with a combination of achieved grades and commitment to professional practice such as volunteering, coaching, work placement and other opportunities in mind, winners in the 2018 awards scheme also included the following:

Academic Performance Award

  • North West: Year One – Megan Dykes (Wigan Athletic); Year Two – Sean Rowlinson (Wigan Athletic)
  • North East: Year One – Andrew Kempson (Sheffield United); Year Two – James Peech (Sheffield Wed)
  • Central: Year One – Natalie Drury (Notts Forest); Year Two – Bradley Moore (Wolves)
  • South: Year One – Ryan Caws (Southampton); Year Two – James Miller (Portsmouth)

Professional Practice Award

  • North West: Year One – Megan Dykes (Wigan Athletic); Year Two – Katie Adams (Carlisle United)
  • North East: Year Two – Alex Webb (Leeds United)
  • Central: Year One – Jon Lewis (Cheltenham); Year Two – Rhys Taylor (Derby)
  • South: Year One – Ryan Caws (Southampton); Year Two – Mark Corbett (Portsmouth)

Sunderland AFC stars back New Community Hub

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Sunderland AFC management and players are lining up to support the North East’s newest sports, education, health and events venue – the Beacon of Light.

Throughout the summer, a string of Black Cats stars have attended a range of events and activities at the state-of-the-art facility, inspiring the business community and delighting hundreds of children and adults. The Beacon which opened this year will welcome around 6,000 people a week and act as a hub for people of all ages who want to take part in exciting programmes to improve their lives and prospects

Manager Jack Ross kicked off the new season in June at a special breakfast alongside SAFC legend Kevin Ball and corporate supporters on the EFL’s fixture release day where he discussed the exciting new era on Wednesday ahead of the League One campaign.

“I’ve been an ambassador for the Foundation for a few years now,” said former club captain Ball. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the people whose lives they’ve changed and seen the Beacon go from vision to reality. “Our charity is setting the standards for other football club worldwide.”

Then, ahead of SAFC’s Carabao Cup clash with Sheffield Wednesday in August, Charlie Wyke and Tom Flanagan watched a training session with the Foundation’s Scholars on the rooftop barn before taking part in a Q&A.

Impressed by the Beacon’s facilities, forward Wyke said:

“The Beacon is fantastic. It’s a good opportunity for young players to showcase their talent and a brilliant place. If I was a young lad playing here I would definitely thrive off it.”

Later that month, Josh Maja and Luke O’Nien surprised more than 60 youngsters at a summer multi-sports course, joining in small-sided football games and trying their luck on the Foundation’s sports inflatables before posing for photos and signing autographs.

Rounding off the summer’s player visits, Flanagan and Jack Baldwin joined a Every Player Counts session, a fun weekly football session for people with a range of disabilities.

“It’s really important to engage the local community,” Flanagan added. “I’ve visited the Beacon a couple of times now and it seems to get better every time. People are so lucky to be able to be able to use it and it’s definitely something they should take advantage of. It will be great to see people benefitting from the Beacon for years to come.”

 

Wigan Athletic Aim to Raise £100,000 to Buy Homeless Centre

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Wigan Athletic have teamed up with local homelessness charity ‘The Brick’ for a second season to help rebuild the lives of people facing homelessness, poverty and debt crisis across Wigan and Leigh.

The Wigan-based charity will work closely with Latics throughout the 2018/19 season to aim to raise an incredible £100,000 to buy the Brick Works centre on Hodson Street near the town centre, which will secure it’s long-term future.

The Brick provide a safe, solid building block for people in crisis to begin to construct a new life and become valuable members of society. Services run by the charity include a Crisis Intervention Service and Wigan’s largest food bank, managed by a small team of staff and dedicated volunteers.

Latics fans will again be able to donate food and toiletries to The Brick’s collection points on home match days this season y where representatives from the charity will be outside the South East corner of the stadium, as well as bucket collecting around the ground.

The Brick Works, one of the charity’s innovative programmes, offers training to increase the employment opportunities for people who are unemployed for a variety of reasons, which may include homelessness, those who have been released from prison, people with mental health, low employability skills or the longer-term unemployed.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said of the partnership:

“I’m really pleased about this news because as Mayor of Greater Manchester I’ve made ending rough sleeping and tackling homelessness a top priority. I want to get all Greater Manchester borough’s pulling behind that objective, so to have one of our successful football teams partnering with such a great charity sends a hugely positive message out not only in Wigan Borough, but right throughout Greater Manchester.

“We can see the growing number of people huddled in doorways all over Greater Manchester and it’s a reflection of life becoming so much more insecure these days. We’re all just a couple of bits of bad luck away from being in those doorways ourselves, so this partnership is a recognition that rough sleeping and homelessness could hit any of us and that’s why we all need to understand the causes of it.

“We’re living in times where mental health is a bigger concern, people are feeling more stressed so we’ve all got to come together as one society to say it’s not acceptable in this day and age that anyone spends a night without a roof over their heads. We all believe that we can come together in Greater Manchester to look after everybody and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

“Every time I visit The Brick I’m just blown away by what they’re doing. I obviously saw The Brick grow first hand when I was MP and heard people talk about the difference the staff there had made to people’s lives. It’s an organisation that everyone in the borough is hugely proud of, but this partnership with Wigan Athletic as it goes into its second year means they can do so much more and help more people.”

Jonathan Jackson, Wigan Athletic Chief Executive, said:

“We’re delighted to partner with The Brick once again this season to help tackle homelessness, poverty and debt crisis across the borough. There were a number of highlights from last year’s partnership, and we look forward to working with the charity this season to raise the funds needed to secure their long-term future.”

Ged Bretherton, Business Director for The Brick, said:

“On behalf of our charity I’d like to thank Latics for trusting and supporting us for another 12 months to enable us to build the charity up brick by brick, but importantly to secure our long-term future by making the Brick Works our future home.

“The Brick aims to tackle homelessness and poverty right across the Wigan Borough and support some of its most vulnerable people, so we hope the club’s supporters will continue to show their immense generosity towards us as we embark on another exciting year-long partnership.”

Please text BRIK18 £5 to donate to The Brick.