Proud Terriers Goes From Strength To Strength Ahead Of Huddersfield Town’s Dedicated Rainbow Laces Fixture

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“I really want to help in the fight to eradicate homophobia from football,” says Ryan Mather. In 2020, we gave our platform to Ryan a life-long Huddersfield Town fan and very ‘Proud Terrier’ to tell his story in his own words. At the time Ryan was also a first-year student on the University of South Wales and EFL Trust Foundation Degree in Community Football Coaching and Development with Huddersfield Town Foundation.

Ryan has since progressed having completed his Foundation Degree earlier this year and is now in the process of completing the Top Up Degree.

Ryan explains how proud Terriers came about, “A few years back at a Huddersfield Town vs Brighton game, which was our Rainbow Laces fixture, there was homophobic chanting from the Town end to the Brighton fans. This was the most uncomfortable I have ever felt at a game and this incident left me feeling upset, angry, and so disappointed. Being made to feel like this has led to me having several panic attacks and has impacted my mental health. If I’m feeling this, then others within our community will feel the same. “

“I made it my mission ultimately to create a culture of inclusion in football and develop more of an accepting atmosphere throughout the ground and the community. My starting point was to create a real identity for the group and came up with ‘Proud Terriers’. I started with a logo and then created a Twitter page for the group. At the time I already knew someone at the Football Club and so I reached out to him to tell him about my ideas and to see how he could support us and the Club have been really supportive.”

There has also been support from Huddersfield Town Club legend, Andy Booth who has become a Proud Terriers ambassador. This has seen the initiative grow from strength to strength. Andy works within the supporter’s services and is the frontman of getting ideas off the ground from appearing in the club programme, to meeting players.

Ryan said: “He’s been a really incredible ally to us and one I will always be grateful for to have someone I looked up to growing up when he played for the club is surreal.”

This has enabled Proud Terriers to be a connecting partner with many local colleges and Huddersfield Town Women which has continued to enhance the football is for everyone messaging to a wider, diverse audience.

More so, social media has been powerful in Ryan’s upwards trajectory with his Instagram and Twitter followers doubling since their creation in 2020. Consequently, Proud Terriers now has its own merchandise available with Ryan and his team handing out laces, badges and leaflets at Huddersfield Towns dedicated Rainbow Laces fixture against Millwall on Saturday 29th October.

“I am a big Huddersfield Town fan and I have been all my life. I am an openly gay football fan and I’ve witnessed homophobia and really wanted to establish a movement to inspire a new generation of fans and create a culture in which homophobia doesn’t exist. There still is a way to go but with Proud Terriers we’ve made a great start of the journey.”

You can find out more by following Proud Terriers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @ProudTerriers or email Ryan and the team at [email protected].

Making the unnoticed, noticed, “Many of us felt that the homeless go unnoticed in society and we wanted to give them a voice.”

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A group of inspiring young teens from Sheffield with Element Society recently set out on a unique mission to impact their local community during their time on the National Citizen Service programme (NCS).

The mission… To help the homeless.

Following a week of adventure which included rock climbing and raft building, the group of 13 young people set to work on improving their community with the delivery of a social action project. Young people on NCS get the opportunity to complete a social action project as part of their experience, where they are given a taste of independence, mix with new people, take on exciting challenges and work on meaningful projects.

For their project, the group agreed that poverty and homelessness is a big issue within the city and felt that it was important to do something about it.

Naming the project ‘Th3 Unnoticed’, the group wanted to acknowledge the lack of awareness of homeless people within the city and started off by handing out food and drink for the homeless people of Sheffield. This was coupled with heartfelt messages and personalised cards of motivation, leading to some tearful emotions of gratitude from the homeless people.

Jon Dennis was one of the young people involved and gave more detail of what the group got up to:

“Many of us felt that the homeless go unnoticed in society and we wanted to give them a voice. It all resulted in a project that we were proud to be a part of.”

“We spent a week spreading awareness through social media about the struggles and misconceptions of rough sleepers in Sheffield. We used our £100 allowance to buy 15 meal deals and hand them out to the homeless in the city centre. We also talked to the homeless and asked them about their experiences of sleeping on the streets.”

Not slowing down, the group then set out a unique social experiment, involving one member of the group acting as a homeless person and then asking the public for help, to see whether anybody showed any concern. The group then gave £10 back to members of the public who did show concern as a sign of appreciation.

The groups endeavour went from strength to strength, as they also created surveys for the public, to gain their perspective on homelessness. The idea behind the surveys, was to help the group to gain some important data on the public’s perspective of the homeless within Sheffield, including how many members of the public would be willing to a help a homeless person, when encountering them in the city centre.

Emily Broadbent, another member of the group had this to say about the project:

“Our project was to help the unnoticed citizens by spreading a message that there is still hope left for the less fortunate. As a group, we all agreed that people shouldn’t still be living on the streets especially with such a wealthy economy surrounding them, as they become unnoticed and put in the shadows.”

Their 2-week experience on NCS has not only helped raise awareness of homelessness in Sheffield, as the young people themselves also gained greatly from such a fantastic collective effort, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones and interacting with a wide range of different people within the community.

Will Earp, Programmes Manager at Element Society, commented on the young people’s project:

“The team recognised that in their local area, homelessness rates are increasing, with more and more people sleeping on the streets. They wanted to spread some kindness and joy through their short messages, it was heart-warming to see the responses from some people.”

“Their passion was evident about this topic and the team would love to use Changemaker opportunities to pitch to continue their social action!”

Click here to find out more about NCS.

“The impact of this programme is so huge it is almost unmeasurable”

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These were the words of Hayley Barclay from Club Doncaster Foundation who recently took students from Harrison College in Doncaster on the NCS programme. Read more

Young people put a smile on elderly people’s faces

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A group of 13 young people recently set out on a project to spread cheer and share essential supplies to their community. 

The project was spearheaded by young people on NCS with Port Vale Foundation. NCS is an experience designed for 16–17-year-olds where they are given a taste of independence, forge new relationships, take on exciting challenges and also working on social action projects to benefit their local communities. 

They  chose to keep their social action project local to home as most of the group are Port Vale fans and so felt passionately raising money for Port Vale Foundation’s ‘Community Cupboard’. The Community Cupboard is an initiative to help people struggling with food poverty within the Stoke on Trent community providing a welcomed support of vital supplies throughout the year for people in need. 

To keep the cupboard up and running, the group raised money at one of Port Vale’s ‘Golden Valiant’s’ sessions. Golden Valiants is part of EFL Trust’s Extra Time Hubs programmes and is aimed to tackle loneliness in elderly people.   

Young met old as the group hosted a Golden Valiants session and hosted a variety of fun and exciting activities, such as a quiz, bake sale, tombola, as well as bonding with the elderly over some hot beverages. The event put a smile on everyone that attended, with elderly people stating their personal enjoyment on bonding with the younger generation.  

The fundraising at Golden Valiants resulted in raising over £200 worth of supplies for the community cupboard. This included young people buying essential food items such as milk, pasta, soups, meat and many others. 

The legacy of the project has already been felt within the local community, with elderly people at Golden Valiants expressing their gratitude for the young people that hosted the event.  

Sadie Haynes, Community Project Co-ordinator AT Port Vale Foundation had the following to say about the project: 

“A huge thankyou to the NCS young people who fundraised for our Community Cupboard, the food that was donated from the monies raised will go a long way in supporting the families in our community who need that support.”  

Click here to find out more about NCS. 

Young people host refugee event at Loftus Road

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A group of young people on NCS, launched a project this summer to provide some cheer for refugees raising £285. The young people, who were with QPR Community Trust, had the opportunity to make a positive difference within their community through their NCS experience.

NCS is designed for 16–17-year-olds and during their experience they are given a taste of independence, as they mix with new people, taking on exciting challenges and also working on projects to benefit their local communities.

The young people ran an event for a group of local refugees, which was held at QPR’s Loftus Road Stadium. One of the group members, Mohammed, was a refugee himself and was passionate about supporting other refugees within the community. The group felt inspired by Mohammed’s story and so got to work on a project.

The group contacted refugee charity ‘Care for Calais’ and discussed their idea of hosting an event at QPR, involving tours and fun activities for the refugees. On the day of the event at Loftus Road, over 40 people attended and were enthused by the passion shown by the young people, in attempting to provide some cheer.

Families and young children has an evening of fun games, activities and were also shown around Loftus Road. Due to the success of the evening, the group, alongside QPR and ‘Care for Calais’ are now lookign to arrange further events to engage more refugees in the local area.

Mohammed talked to us about the project:

“We needed to help the community, to try to understand how to help people and to make a better society. It was really wonderful and enjoyable to organise the event at Loftus Road, because we made other people happy.

“I enjoyed meeting new people and their children, communicating with them and put smiles on their faces.

Mohammed has felt the positive impact his NCS experience has had upon him whilst working on his refugee social action project at QPR:

“NCS was the best experience I ever had, it was such a great time to meet new friends, to do so many activities and to learn so much. NCS has helped me improve my own skills, such as communication and it has shown me how to talk confidently. I would love to do NCS all over again.”

Not stopping there, the young people launched a Go Fund Me page, raising £285. The money raised was used to provide goodie bags to give out to each refugee attending, containing toys, games, QPR merchandise, food and drinks.

Savannah Pacey was one of the young people involved within the project, she had this to say;

“This was such a rewarding experience for us. We were able to spend an evening with a group of people who we wouldn’t normally have contact with. To hear their stories and see the smiles on the children’s faces was just incredible.

“It has been such an incredible experience. I’ve loved every minute, from the activities in the first week, to the social action project it has just been so rewarding. On top of that I’ve made some great friends too!

“I feel more confident now to go out in the world and challenge myself!”

Click here to find out more about NCS.

Young people on NCS rejuvenate school garden for local a school

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Port Vale Foundation Trust’s (PVFT) young people have been making a significant impact upon themselves and within the community, as they carried out a project at their local school with the aim of increasing student socialisation and their mental health, through renovating a school garden.

As part of PVFT’s NCS programme, young people decided to carry out their social action project at Watermill school, where they attended as students. Watermill school is one of three SEN schools within the local area where PVFT deliver their NCS programme, in which the young students involved within the project have special educational needs.

The group worked immensely on creating a more aesthetically pleasing garden for the school and themselves, allowing the it to be a place where students could relieve any stresses and relax.

For the success of the project, the group decided to use their creativity and organisation skills, as they split the group up into smaller sections, dedicated to specific tasks.

For one of the tasks, the young people weeded and re-dug the area, creating a prettier space. Flowers were also planted, where water features were installed, powered by solar. Also, along this area, young people created a positive stone, featuring positive words, images and messages along with the names of the young people involved, which were permanently engrained onto stones. The main idea for this was to leave a lasting legacy that the Watermill Year 11 young people had during their NCS experience.

Other tasks involved creating a ‘bug hotel’ sanctuary for insects, digging out a flower bed and planting new seeds, re-painting a shed, cutting the apple trees and improving the general overall aesthetics of the garden.

Misbah Mahmood was one of the dedicated young people involved within the project, and had this to say about the experience:

“I really enjoyed my NCS experience and I learnt lots of new skills I would never have learnt. NCS has been really fun and I will miss doing the programme each day!”.

The project generated a massive impact upon the school, its garden, its students as well the young people involved, as they also benefitted greatly from the project, developing new skills, new friends and a stronger mentality through their hard endeavour. NCS Changemakers with PVFT will continue to monitor and improve the school garden in the long-term and uphold the legacy of the project created by the young people involved.

Paul Kirk, teacher at Watermill School had this to say about the legacy of the project:

“The NCS programme has had a huge impact on the social, emotional and cognitive development of our pupils. We have seen the pupils clearly develop their communication, teamwork, problem solving and leadership skills amongst many others. Our young people now often refer to their NCS skills and experiences as some of the highlights of their school life”.

 

The hard work and dedication from all the young people involved at the project did not go unnoticed by Watermill School, as the school hosted a special NCS Graduation Day for all the young people the be acknowledged and congratulated on their project.

NCS Project Lead at Port Vale Foundation, Jorgie Wallace, has this to say:

“The young people were amazing on the NCS programme, and they really did exceed all of our expectations. Throughout the 2 weeks, young people all pulled together to work as a team and demonstrated various different skills which they can use going into their future.”

 “As a staff team, we really enjoyed working with the young people, they kept us on our toes and definitely left a lasting legacy with their social action project. The young people are all a real asset to the school, NCS and Port Vale Foundation. The Graduation allowed us to celebrate all the success of the young people and recognise all their hard work on this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“When its dark, look for stars” Young people on NCS in Rotherham launch project to spread positivity and mental health awareness

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A young group of inspiring NCS Changemakers with Rotherham United Community Sports Trust have launched a project to spread positive thinking, mental health awareness and to raise money for Young Minds, a local mental health charity. The group set up a variety of different initiatives at Rotherham United’s game against Oxford United this month which was their dedicate NCS Matchday

The NCS Matchday celebrated the success of Rotherham’s NCS programme. NCS is the ultimate experience for young people aged 16-17, in which they are given the opportunity to make new friends, develop new skills and create new memories. NCS Changemakers compromise of 25 NCS graduates, who meet up regularly to make a real, positive impact in the community, as part of this, the Changemakers undertake a social action project, which aims to implement their quest for positive change.

For their social action project, the Rotherham teens came together and decided they wanted to raise awareness about mental health and provide information of how people can receive help if they need someone to talk to. The initiative is part of the ‘Impact’ project which is an ongoing project where young people have been designing and selling merchandise, to raise money for localised mental health groups in Rotherham.

The young people recognised that as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of young people suffered with bad mental health and ended up taking their own lives. Thus, the group were inspired to turn their passion into action.

We talked to Abbie Pearson, who was one of the NCS Changemakers involved. Abbie comments:

“We wanted to work with a mental health charity as it’s something that everyone has a connection to. Young Minds was important to us as it works specifically with our age group. Following the Coronavirus pandemic it is important for young people to be able to access support. NCS match day was targeting young people, so it seemed important to use this opportunity to spread positivity and share the message of what Young Minds do. As a group we agreed that we just wanted to offer support and put a smile on some people’s faces with our positive messages.”

The group utilised the busy attendance at Rotherham United’s Matchday, as they held a stall in front of the New York Stadium, containing a large amount of positive merchandise from the ongoing ‘Impact’ project. The merchandise held powerful messages such as, ‘When it’s dark, look for stars’ to encourage people to think positively during difficult times.

The Changemakers were also hands-on, as they ventured around the stadium with leaflets to reinforce the strong messages and buckets to raise money for Young Minds.

Julia, from Young Minds Charity had this to say about the project:

“We are always grateful of people fundraising and raising awareness in regards to Mental Health. There are many people out there who need someone to talk to but may not know where to find the help or feel too introverted to ask for it.”

“A club like Rotherham Utd can do wonders and reach a lot of people who might not usually come forward – they might have saved some lives just by being there with contact details. It’s great to see young people get involved and helping people, keep doing what you’re doing!”

Additionally, the young people also created an innovative wheel of fortune, which was designed with tasks to put a smile on people’s faces, give away freebies and encourage socialisation between people, in which the area at the front of the stadium become a hub of happiness for those taking part.

The Changemakers were also motivated to do some random acts of kindness and make young people happy, as they invited young people at random to take part in a half-time penalty challenge against Club Mascot, Miller Bear on the pitch, which for some young people was an opportunity of a lifetime.

NCS Project Manager, at Rotherham United Community Sports Trust, Carla Whitehead had this to say about the legacy of the project:

“All the money raised from the bucket collections are set to go towards Young Minds. Additionally, the money generated from selling the Impact positivity merchandise will also go towards volunteer mental health groups in Rotherham, to ensure they have the money and equipment they need to provide that much needed space and time to health those people who need the outlet.”

“In addition, the positive messages on the merchandise will leave a legacy in itself as the messages are designed to remind people to keep on going and be kind to each other.”

To find out more about NCS, please click here.

NCS Changemakers with Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme launch project to provide vital life skills for adults with learning difficulties

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NCS Changemakers at Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme (SWFCCP), have undertaken an exciting kitchen garden project, with the aim of providing essential skills to adults with learning difficulties. For #NCSActionDay this month, Changemakers at SWFCCP put on a sustainable kitchen garden project, which will be completed by May, as well as an afternoon of exciting activities.

NCS Changemakers have been supporting the ‘Sapphire Project’, an initiative to apply a deep, rich and socially inclusive set of day and evening experiences for adults with learning experiences.

The project focuses on activities that the adults may struggle to achieve at home or elsewhere, such as visual, culinary and performing arts, live music, artisanal gardening, environmental awareness as well as general day trips outside.

The Changemakers have been working hard on delivering the kitchen garden project. The project aims at enabling the adults of the charity to learn new skills, by harvesting and growing vegetables, and using the produced goods at the Charity Café, which will continue to provide income and support for the adults in the future.

Original plans of a garden seating area had to be put on hold, however despite the setback, Changemakers were not put off, and showed real resilience and determination during their project. The group came up with the other idea of delivering sustainable, productive and fun activities for the project. NCS Changemakers raised enough money to kickstart the kitchen garden with some new vegetables that will leave a lasting impact in the area.

As well as benefiting from new kitchen garden, the adults also got to experience some other fun activities, which involved bingo games, spaghetti and marshmallow challenges, and karaoke, where the adults were able to sing some spring cheer.

Hugo, is one of the NCS Changemakers involved with the project:

“Me and the other changemakers have worked really hard to raise money for the Sapphire Project, through doing lots of different fundraising initiatives, including our Action Day, which we held an activities day with those at  Sapphire who have learning difficulties.”

“All the money raised will go towards creating a Kitchen Garden and expanding the facilities, enabling more people to use the charity and have better facilities in place.”

Hugo and the Changemakers from SWCCP have committed to supporting the Sapphire Project’s sustainable garden project. They will continue to raise further funds to purchase all the planters, soil and plants for the garden. The project itself, has allowed the young people to display their skills that they have accumulated during their time on NCS and Changemakers, with the intention of  passing on them key skills to the adults and improving their socialisation.

Young people from Barnsley cycled and walked 2,500 miles to support struggling families

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Christmas is mostly a period of celebrations and joy for most, however it can provide extenuating difficulties for some families. Recognising this, a group of Changemakers, aged, 16-18, from Reds in the Community (Barnsley FC) set out to suppoort families ahead of the festive period. Read more

Reaching Out and Reconnecting: How Blackpool FC changed Chloe’s life

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Having experienced homelessness and addiction and with her only income coming through Universal Credit Chloe really wanted to find employment. However, her trans status and involvement within the LGBT+ community had provided a negative experience in previous workplaces which left her with no confidence and lacking any self-belief.

Enrolling on the Training Ground Programme in connection with Blackpool FC Community Trust saw Chloe gain numerous basic skills from Maths and English to money management. However, another huge personal achievement saw her participate in the weekly physical activity session having never really considered exercise as something for her.

The Training Ground Programme is aimed at young people aged 18-24 who are currently unemployed and may be at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. Participants may be in receipt of, or eligible to claim Universal Credit at the start of the programme. Participants equally may not be in receipt of any government benefits. Participants must be NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) to be eligible to take part in the programme. The Training Ground Programme is funded via a development grant issued to EFL Trust from the Youth Futures Foundation. This funding will cover the delivery costs of a pilot programme in partnership with 6 EFL Trust CCOs.

As Chloe’s confidence and self-belief started to grow, Chloe shone both inside and outside of the programme.

She commented “It’s the best thing I have ever participated in, and my future looks bright for the first time.”

Chloe grew professionally which resulted in her being offered a Volunteering Co-Ordinator Kickstart role. On top of this, the programmes ability to nurture her self-worth and confidence also saw her reconnect with her family to share her success.