How Club Doncaster allows participants to fall in love with football: Steph’s Story

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How Club Doncaster allows participants to fall in love with football: Steph’s Story.

Steph has always had a passion for football but due to her physical disability she struggled to find a team that suited to her individual needs. This meant she had been out of the sport for several years which as Steff admits led her to lose confidence. She says. “I wasn’t the most confident person and didn’t really believe in my own ability.”

This was all until in 2016 whilst at university she came across Club Doncaster Titans which are part of the EFL Trust and Wembley National Stadium Trusts Every Player Counts Programme. The programme has over the past five years, helped get over 13 000 people with a wide range of disabilities playing football – many for the first time .

But, after just her first session she felt “happier, more active and fell in love with football again!”  As she continued her journey at the club, she was provided the opportunity to get into coaching which started as leading the warms ups before progressing into having her own Wildcats session. Steph credits Darren, the Titans coach in helping her believe in herself.

She said: “I owe a lot to Club Doncaster Titans and Darren Warner for all the opportunities and experience they have provided me with which has really helped me grown and develop as a person and as a coach.”

Consequently, her belief and development with support from Darren has seen her takeover the Under 12 session allowing her to aid participants on a similar journey to herself.

In 2021, Steph was given the chance to begin a female only session with freedom to tailor it as her own initiative. She explained: “This session has really grown into its own and is thriving enough where we now have enough female players to compete.”

One of Stephs female players, Sheridan Batunas was full of praise for her coach. She said: “Steph is an amazing coach for our ladies’ team- she is always very friendly and polite and has a very big heart. I couldn’t wish for a better coach.”

Steph now hopes to “continue Darren’s legacy and keep providing opportunities for all.”

Club Doncaster are one of 28 Football Club Community Organisations across the country that offer the programme, which is specifically developed for the needs of people in their local community, including those with both physical, mental and learning impairments.

 

 

Colin Bennett: Why International Day of People with Disabilities is Important

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Today, Friday 3rd December, is International Day of People with Disabilities (International Day of People with Disabilities (idpwd.org)).

But for people with disabilities, it’s not about one day and then move on to the next special day. It’s every day, week, month, all year. Every year.

And that’s why days like this are so important. The day should be seen as a platform to highlight the challenges and barriers to people with a disability and even more so, amplify the great work that goes on. Let’s keep the conversation relevant, front and centre and ensure our work is the norm.

I am very proud to be the Project Manager for the EFL Trust’s Every Player Counts project which has been funded by Wembley National Stadium for the last 5 years. By the end of the 5th year our network of Club Community Organisations (CCOs) will have delivered football to nearly 15,000 participants, enabling and empowering people of all ages to be active and play.

And it’s more than just play. We know that being active is good for people’s mental and physical health, their social inclusion and for them to have a community connection. We have participants who previously wouldn’t leave their house but now have started jobs, apprenticeships, college courses. We are hearing from teachers that participants are more outgoing; we are hearing from participants that the one thing they will not miss is their football; we are seeing a pride that participants can represent their club; we know the importance of the strength of the network’s community work.

Throughout today we are highlighting that work in just some of our CCOs to showcase what we do but also to celebrate the participants and their families. Disability should not be seen as a difference. Because in fact over 80% of disabled people acquired disability later in life. Fewer than 20% were born with disability.

Think about that for a moment.

Of the people with a disability fewer than 20% were born with their disability.

The work continues every day in our communities and through the EFL Trust CCOs I see first-hand these great stories. Hopefully you can support the amplification of the message and I look forward to continuing the great work each and every day.

How Keira’s love for Blackpool FC has been the catalyst to her development.

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Blackpool FC super fan, Keira has developed her ability to express herself since attending the clubs Every Player Counts sessions.

Keira lives with AUTS2 syndrome but her passion and love for football and especially Blackpool FC has been the catalyst for her progress on and off the pitch.

Blackpool are part of the Every Player Counts programme which is funded by Wembley National Stadium Trust and EFL Trust.  Every Player Counts has, over the past five years, helped get over 13 000 people with a wide range of disabilities playing football – many for the first time.

Before she attended the Every Player Counts sessions Keira lacked confidence and would be reluctant to speak to others, her mum explains: “

“Keira’s communication has definitely improved. She is much more confident speaking to the other participants. Recently she has been telling the participants when she is going to watch a Blackpool FC game. When we first came to the sessions, she would never have been confident enough to do this. It’s so good to see. I think part of what has helped her express herself more is that she has made friends here who she is comfortable around.”

These thoughts are echoed by all that know Keira. Paul, Blackpool’s Community Engagement Officer said: “Out of all the participants I work with Keira is one of the most enthusiastic about Blackpool FC, she and her family are season ticket holders, and she loves seeing them play and talks about Blackpool’s results and fixtures when I see her at the Tuesday session… Her skills at football have improved greatly. We were practising a skill move the other day, the drag back turn, and Keira did it first time, something she would have found difficult when she first started.”

Keira will continue to attend the sessions and tell everyone about her beloved Blackpool FC.

Blackpool are one of 28 Football Club Community Organisations across the country that offer the programme, which is specifically developed for the needs of people in their local community, including those with both physical, mental, and learning impairments.

How Plymouth Argyle’s Every Player Counts session has given Cory the environment to succeed.

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Argyle’s Ability Counts group has allowed Cory to develop from a shy 9-year-old to a confident, social 15-year-old teenager.

At 9 Cory was diagnosed with autism, learning difficulties, OCD, and anxiety where he struggled within social situations and the ability to process and regulate the changes in his day-to-day life.

Plymouth Argyle are part of the Every Player Counts programme which is funded by Wembley National Stadium Trust and EFL Trust.  Every Player Counts has, over the past five years, helped get over 13 000 people with a wide range of disabilities playing football – many for the first time .

Since his participation in the Junior Ability Counts football team at Argyle, he has gained confidence, friends and played for the Long-Term Player Development (LTPD) team. Cory has also widened his horizons by joining a mainstream football something that would have been hard to imagine before he started with Argyle.

His development has presented itself in numerous ways as since being involved at the Trust he has raised £2,000 for the Autism Association, something he felt passionately about raising awareness for and supporting the charity.

More so, he has gone on to complete his FA Refereeing qualification and now referees in the Devon Junior and Minor League every Saturday. As well as volunteering as a coach at the LTPD sessions.

His mum comments: “This is all thanks to the coaches that have supported Cory throughout playing in the Plymouth Argyle Ability Counts team.”

Cory is hoping to be given the chance to become an Sports Coaching Apprentice within the Community Trust when he leaves school next year.

Plymouth Argyle are one of 28 Football Club Community Organisations across the country that offer the programme, which is specifically developed for the needs of people in their local community, including those with both physical, mental and learning impairments.

HOW FOOTBALL IS BUILDING SELF ESTEEM AND MAKING EVERY PLAYER COUNT

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Over 13,000 children, young people and adults with disabilities have been introduced to football through our Every Player Counts programme.

Today for International Day of Persons with Disabilities we be looking at some of the stories behind that statistics. The programme, which is co-funded by EFL Trust and Wembley National Stadium Trust (WNST), has now been running for 5 years and offers the benefits of playing football to people with a wide range of disabilities.

The stories we will showcase today are from people of differing ages and cover a range of disabilities. However, the common thread running each personal journey is of a struggle to find a way to fit in and how playing football has allowed each individual to build their confidence, self-esteem and form friendships. This in turn, transferred into their school, work and personal life, has opened up a range of opportunities.

28 EFL Club Community Organisations run Every Player Counts programmes that are tailored to the specific needs of their local community, covering a wide range of disability programmes including, but not restricted to, powerchair football, football for visual impairment, and learning difficulties. Although individual programmes will differ from club to club, the emphasis is always on increasing participation, improving health and championing the social benefits of taking part in football.

All this is possible thanks to Wembley National Stadium Trust who in 2016 made a £1.1m, donation over three year – what was their largest investment and their first England-wide grant. A further £500,000 in 2019, plus funding from the EFL Trust to include our Welsh league clubs, has enabled our CCOs, so far, to change the lives of 13,000 people.

Eleanor scores a full-time role with Reading FC Community Trust through the Kickstart Programme

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Gaining a footstep into the professional workplace has been a process that has brought extraneous difficulties for young people, especially during the pandemic. For Eleanor Povey, this was no exception, however, after an opportunity arose with Reading FC Community Trust on a Kickstart placement, Eleanor made a great impression and  has now secured full-time employment there.

After graduating from University, Eleanor found herself struggling with the prospect of long-term unemployment, as she was unable to find a job in an environment, she was comfortable with, during the initial stages of the  pandemic last year. Eleanor’s luck changed upon stumbling across an opportunity to work as an Admin Officer at Reading FC Community Trust within the Kickstart programme.

The Kickstart programme is an initiative to help bring young people claiming universal credit, into the workplace. In recent times due to the pandemic, this has been more necessary than ever to the lives of many young people.

As we approach the last month of 2021, the EFL Trust are delighted that over 477 Kickstarter’s have been employed across our EFL Clubs and Community Organisations, with over 196 vacancies currently available. We are even prouder that over 90% of those young people completing an EFL Trust placement have gone into a positive employability destination such as a new full-time role or apprenticeship.

Eleanor Povey is currently at Reading FC Community Trust and is a shining example of why this programme is perfect in an industry with so many exciting opportunities. Starting her role initially as an Admin Officer, Eleanor gained exposure to a multitude of different areas, enabling her to attain different skills and develop her expertise.

Eleanor talked about her placement at Reading FC Community Trust:

“During my role I supported the HR department and Administration team, working on a number of different activities such as: holiday entitlement, sick leave, contracts and staff training. I was also able to be involved in meetings with colleagues from the EFL Trust.”

“I thoroughly enjoy working for Reading FC Community Trust. The generosity and willingness of staff to share information and provide training has enabled me to comfortably take on more responsibility.”

After making an overwhelmingly positive impact, Eleanor was given a full-time role as Governance Lead at Reading FC Community Trust. Eleanor discussed her feelings about securing a full-time role:

“I feel very lucky to have secured full-time employment at Reading FC Community Trust. All the staff are incredibly generous with their time and expertise, creating an environment for staff to thrive.”

“I am very grateful for the support and kindness they have shown me. Because of them I feel confident in my abilities to take on more responsibility and to continually develop my professional skillset.”

Eleanor thanked her Kickstart placement for her experiences at Reading FC Community Trust:

“Kickstart has helped me to gain confidence in my abilities through training, support and the opportunity to develop through new experiences. It provides you with an opportunity to increase your professional development by allowing you to undertake training in a chosen area with the support of experienced members of that field.”

With full-time employment secured, Eleanor now has more clarity about her professional career and is on the right path to success.

Click here to find out more about how Kickstart is impacting young people’s lives.

Inspirational young group from Brathay Trust raise nearly £1,000 with NCS for the National Autistic Society

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A young group from Brathay Trust which compromised of 13 members, raised around £1,000 for the National Autistic Society, as they chose to spread awareness about Autism for their summer social action project with NCS. Read more

Dylan Cook: Why I joined the EFL Trust Youth Forum

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My name’s Dylan, I’m 21 years old from Wolverhampton and currently a third-year student studying Football Coaching, Development and Administration at the University of South Wales. I’m the newest member of the EFL Trust Youth Forum.

Read more

Young people show the ‘Power of Youth’ whilst on NCS

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The NCS programme was a roaring success throughout the summer of 2021; with 9,198 young people, aged 16-17, engaging in the delivery of 350 social action programmes, with the collective ambition to improve key social issues and improve the standard of living in their local communities.

Hours volunteered over the course of the summer months amassed 270,000, raising over £60,000 by NCS participants across the EFL Trust network. Following the restrictions posed during the lockdown of 2020, the young people eagerly embraced the opportunity to be hands on in their approach to rejuvenate local areas.

This was particularly evident in Shrewsbury, where an NCS cohort renovated a rundown underpass en route to New Meadow, so fans can enjoy a colourful, Shrewsbury Town themed commute on matchdays. A group from Middlesbrough also made efforts to create a sensory area on a community site aimed for those with learning difficulties, mental health issues and sensory issues to help them relax. A group from North Yorkshire embarked on an impressive 7 social action projects re-vamping a youth-activity space at the YMCA, creating a garden area in their school, making care packages for local care home residents, fundraising for Candlelighters, Westway Open Arms community hub and fundraising for their school.

“This programme has been valuable to me; I have worked with people I would never normally have worked with. My confidence and self-worth has really grown and I feel more independent.” said Megan, 16.

Another key cause that was particularly important to those partaking in the NCS programme over the summer was educating and supporting mental health needs. 13 young people on NCS with Rotherham United Community Sports Trust set out to raise awareness on suicide prevention. In addition to this, a group from Harrogate helped raise funds for Mind, their local mental health charity; whilst also hosting a selection of activities and workshops to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of young people.

“We decided we wanted our Social Action Project to help raise awareness of Mental Health and Wellbeing. We decided to run sports sessions with the younger year groups, alongside mental health workshops; to show them the positive impact of exercise on Mental Health.” Explained Alex, a member of the group.

NCS has given thousands of young people the confidence and self-belief to make the next steps in life – be that higher education or employment prospects – all whilst bolstering their interpersonal and people skills. A great example of this Ethan Bryson, who  took part in the NCS summer programme with Hartlepool United Community Sports Foundation. Living with autism since the age of 4, leaving high school during the global pandemic posed a challenge to Ethan, but his experiences of NCS which helped him meet new people and learn new skills prior to his transition to college.

Another illustration of the benefit that the NCS programme can have can be found in Bradley from Burton. Also living with autism, Bradley’s family had reservations about Bradley’s involvement in NCS due to its full-on nature both physically and socially. But these reservations were soon dropped once they saw the positive impact the experiences had on Bradley. They said:

“The skills he has learnt from just those 2 weeks on NCS has given him so much confidence.” said a member of Bradley’s family. “Thank you so much to everyone for giving Bradley the opportunity to show him he has the ability to do anything he wants.”

This week, young people are being celebrate through #iwillweek recognising the power of youth and their capability when given a voice and a platform to do so, just like 9,198 young people that took part in NCS this summer.

Shamza’s Story: From moving to a new country not knowing the language, to receiving praise from the Prime Minister for leading positive Social Action within Bradford

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For any young teenager, entering a new country and having to integrate into a new culture, as well as learning a new language can be an unnerving process. This was no different for Shamza, 18, who initially felt uncomfortable after leaving Italy. Fast forward 3 years and Shamza received recognition from the Prime Minister for her work in the community as she continues to work hard to make positive change.

Upon arrival from Italy 3 years ago, Shamza struggled with her confidence and ability to make friends. Shamza was unable to speak English and was deprived of opportunities to engage within her community, as she grew up in a small, low populated town within Northern Italy.

Therefore, upon moving into Bradford, Shamza took it upon herself to join NCS through Bradford City Community Foundation, a type of opportunity Shamza would have dreamt of having in Italy. From the onset, NCS helped Shamza to develop her confidence, social skills and ability to speak the English language, she was now able to get her voice heard.

Shamza talked to us about the skills she learnt and her experience with initially starting in NCS:

“I decided to do NCS because I wanted to meet new people and make friends, I wasn’t very outgoing and felt like maybe this was my chance to have fun and improve my skills.”

“NCS made a huge difference on me, it changed me as a person, made me realise that I’m worth it and that I can make friends and be myself. It gave me many skills such as public speaking, CPR training and many others. I was able to overcome my fears by doing new challenges such as rock-climbing and up-sailing to overcome my fear of heights.”

As part of NCS in Summer 2020, Shamza collaborated with a group to complete a social action project that would benefit her community. The group decided to create an inspiring mural in Bradford, to help celebrate the diversity within Bradford and also to celebrate the work done by key workers during the pandemic.

Shamza said:

We were all very proud of our mural because we know that it has made an impact not only on the people of Bradford, but also on those who see Bradford as a non-welcoming city with dangerous people.”

“It not only changed the perspective of those who live in Bradford, but also those who will see our mural and will be able to have a peek into Bradford through its people’s eyes, they will see our diverse community.”

“It was our way of thanking all those who have been working through COVID, our bus drivers, delivery drivers, nurses, doctors, parents, teachers and every single person that put their life at risk to provide for the community.”

The work done by Shamza and her group in the community of Bradford did not go unrecognised, as she was invited down to Number 10 Downing Street, to join Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a special “Thank You Day” BBQ on Sunday the 4th of July. Shamza was invited, along with other young people from across the country, for their work in supporting their local communities during the pandemic.

Reflecting on her evening at Downing Street and being thanked by the Prime Minister, Shamza said:

“It was amazing, I still can’t believe that it really happened! I spoke with Levi Roots, Sajid Javid and the Prime Minister about the social action project I did with my team in Bradford. The Prime Minster was really encouraging telling us to keep doing good and to be the changemakers this country needs!”

“It was really overwhelming to be part of the first ‘National Thank You Day’ and I’m so grateful to be given this opportunity.”

Despite achieving the pinnacle of community work, Shamza has not grown complacent as she is driven to deliver more social action within communities through joining the Peer Action Collective (PAC) programme, with Bradford City Community Foundation.

The PAC involves 120 peer researchers (aged 16-25), who design their own research questions and work with around 6,500 other young people (aged 10–20). The aim is to find out about young people’s experiences of violence and their views on how they can get involved in making their communities better places to live in.

The EFL Trust is working alongside Bradford City Community Foundation and Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme, to give young people in Bradford and Sheffield a voice to make positive change.

Shamza spoke to us about her role as a Peer Researcher:

“Having witnessed youth crime first-hand and seen the effects of the pandemic on my friends, I’m so excited to be part of this project, which will support over 1,500 young people and help me help my generation to heal and thrive.”

“Being a peer researcher means I can find out more about young people’s experiences in my area and then take action to improve their lives. Being a PAC peer researcher appeals to me as a way of learning more about the causes of crime as well as how to prevent it and change teens’ minds. Obviously, if we can’t change our generation now, these problems are going to be our future.”

As part of PAC, Shamza along with other PAC members were involved in anti-bullying initiatives to help high school students. Shamza and her group created fun games for the students to participate in, which all had the goal of raising awareness on bullying and hearing the voices of students who have been affected bullying from all perspectives.

Throughout the community work conducted, Shamza has continued her passion to impact as many individuals as possible within the community. Shamza now wants to further this passion as she is now set to join the Police Force, to continue helping people.

Shamza discussed her motives behind applying to the Police Force:

“I could have gone to university as my parents encouraged, however because of my work done in the community and my time on NCS, I am driven to helping people and that’s what motived me to getting involved in Public Services. NCS have been a big motivator for me wanting to help people.”

Making the world aware of her journey, Shamza was recently centre stage at the 2022 EFL Trust National Conference, where she was invited to talk to over 100 audience members, displaying truly how far she has come.

 

With years of inspiring social action and gaining recognition from the top, it’s fair to say Shamza has transformed communities, individuals and herself in comparison to where she was 3 years ago and where she is now.