Over the years, clubs have built on the position they hold and have expanded the range of services they offer other than simply putting out a team on a Saturday afternoon. Footballai??i??s popularity means that it can be used as the hook to get people interested and involved in other projects and initiatives simply through association.
Children and young adults, in particular, love few things more than football and professional football clubs and when messages are being delivered by these clubs and players or people connected to them they are much more likely to take notice.
The organisations leading this work are the Premier Leagueai??i??s Creating Chances initiative, which supports the 20 clubs in Englandai??i??s top division and the Football League Trust which supports the 72 Football League clubs. These organisations distribute funding raised through commercial and sponsor relationships and charitable activity, handing funding direct to clubs to support the work that they do.
Every club has a separate community development division, usually charities in their own right, that carry out their range of projects. Brighton and Hove Albion are no different and Albion in the Community (AITC) is one of the leading schemes in the country with over 200 full and part time staff and a huge range of partners locally, nationally and internationally. Named as the Football Leagueai??i??s Community scheme of the Year in 2007, its stated vision is to ai???use the power of football to improve and make a difference to peopleai??i??s livesai??? and the work they do comes under 6 main strands: Education, Football and Sports Participation, Social Inclusion, Disability, Health and Community Relations.
The core offer of any clubsai??i?? community scheme is to deliver childrenai??i??s football coaching sessions, in school lessons, on school facilities at the end of the day and over the holidays. Brightonai??i??s coaches operate across numerous schools and sites all over the city and surrounding area and deliver not just football sessions but various other sports aswell.
The ai???Kickzai??i?? project is a national initiative and forms part of AITCai??i??s Social Inclusion work and offers evening football sessions to teenagers and young people free of charge. Youth workers feature alongside club coaches and work with young people to teach them about the dangers of drug and alcohol misuse and encourage them away from engaging in crime and anti-social behaviour.
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Under its Education strand, the ai???Want to Workai??i?? initiative targets unemployed adults in the area, offering qualifications and matching them with local businesses for work experience opportunities. The hook here is the use of the club facilities and even some of the first team players to deliver the qualifications. Inigo Calderon, the clubai??i??s Spanish defender took time out to deliver a lesson on Sports Psychology to Want to Work members working towards a qualification in Exercise Studies. Members get a massive buzz by studying at the clubai??i??s fantastic new stadium and learning first hand from the players.
The ai???Standing Tallai??i?? initiative, under AITCai??i??s Health strand, is part of a national programme called Extra Time and engages over-55s in physical and social activity, particularly those that have suffered an injury through a fall. Again, this event attracted many attendees by the association with the club and by being based at the new Amex stadium where the session was followed by a guided tour.
It is not only in Brighton and the surrounding area that AITCai??i??s work takes place. Coaches and representatives have teamed up with partners and travelled overseas to India to support the establishment of new drinking water facilities, to Rwanda to offer football sessions to orphaned children and to Togo to educate people about the dangers of HIV and AIDS. All the time, the Brighton and Hove Albion name and club badge is shared with everyone that engages.
The impact of Brightonai??i??s new stadium on the work that AITC do cannot be over-emphasised. Having been launched and developed in the days when the club was operating out of a series of portakabins positioned around a temporary stadium, The Amex has given the scheme a new permanent base and a huge attraction for people to engage in their projects. It has enabled them to sell themselves more professionally and really offer themselves as a major partner to businesses and organisations.
So AITC, as with any other clubai??i??s community scheme, creates a win-win-win scenario. Partners use the club to get their message across to their target audience, the club are able to draw down funding to deliver these messages and promote their own badge at the same time and the participants receive quality delivery and enjoy being closely linked with an exciting, high-profile brand.
With the club more than holding their own in the Championship and potentially destined for the Premier League, it looks like a scheme that will continue to grow and continue to do more good for all involved.
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Written by guest author Ben Rawlings
You can follow Ben on twitter @benrawlings77
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