FC United Communitiy Partnerships 2011

FC United of Manchester remains committed to being of benefit to the communities it serves, a commitment enshrined in our founding manifesto.

In recent months we have been working very hard with Manchester City Council and its various regeneration arms such as New East Manchester to make this commitment a reality.

This has resulted in a significant expansion in the scale and scope of our community work. Over the next few months we will have an impact on the lives of many people living in Manchester and Greater Manchester, expanding the number of people involved in the delivery of our community work and developing our expertise and the range of projects we take on.

Over the last 12 months (ending in June 2011) we have been working with the following partners in various aspects of our work.

Positive Activities for Young People (partnering with Manchester Council, New East Manchester, The Co-op, Troydale Tenants and Residents Association and Limerston Drive Tenants and Residents Association)

FC United coaches will delivered football coaching on Friday nights for young people aged 16-19 in Newton Heath, Miles Platting, Clayton, Ancoats and Openshaw. In addition, we worked with tenants associations to provide additional activities for young people in Newton Heath.

Young Volunteers (partnering with Manchester Council, Guinness Northern Counties Housing Association and ADACTUS Housing)

FC United have a long track record of working with young volunteers, training them and giving them opportunities to develop their skills and confidence. We have delivered projects for young volunteers working with children in Cheetham Hill and New Moston and working with older people in Miles Platting and Newton Heath.

Young People who are not in Employment or Training (partnering with Manchester Council and West Gorton FC)

FC United coaches have delivered a number of projects funded by Manchester Council focussing on helping young people develop skills and confidence to help them find work or identify training courses they want to attend. Working with 60 young people in total, over half completed a Level 2 NVQ in Sports Activity Leadership and 18 completed a PEARL qualification in employability skills. The projects were based in Wythenshawe, Clayton, Ancoats, Newton Heath and West Gorton.

Careleavers (partnering with Barnardo’s and Manchester Council)

Barnardo’s are a long standing partner of the club and we are continuing our work with careleavers, providing support, training and opportunities to play football and to volunteer in the community. Additional funding has come for this work from Manchester Council.

Community Cohesion (partnering with Tameside Council, The Coop, The Zesh Rehman Foundation and Forever Manchester)

FC United has a long track record of using football to overcome tensions between different communities and has developed close links with football clubs which are especially welcoming to ethnic groups currently under-represented in football. This year we have worked on projects in Tameside and Bury that get people from different backgrounds playing football alongside each other. We were also very pleased to be asked by the Zesh Rehman Foundation

After School Clubs (partnering with Manchester Careers Solutions and Ex-Cell)

The growing list of schools in which we run after school clubs currently includes St. Augustine’s in Monsall, Bowker Vale, Cravenwood and Crumpsall Lane in Crumpsall, St. Patrick’s in Collyhurst, St. Ambrose in Chorlton, Holy Trinity and St. Thomas’s in Bury, St. John Bosco’s in Blackley, St. Mary’s in Hawkshaw, Parrenthorn High School, Guardian Angels in Bury, Lily Lane in Moston and Ashbury Meadows in Beswick. This work is partly made possible with coaches funded via the Future Jobs Fund and we are indebted to the support of Ex-Cell and Manchester Careers Solutions who have made this possible.

Playschemes (partnering with Manchester Council, Guinness Northern Counties Housing Association, Parrenthorn High School, Limerston Drive Tenants and Residents Association, Whitemoss Youth Club, AVIVA Insurance, The Coop, Great Places Housing Association, The Sportlight, Manchester Sport and Leisure Trust, NEPHRA and ZEST)

We continue to find funding to run activities for children and young people over the school holidays. Often our growing number of volunteers helps us to put on these schemes. This summer we will be running activities for children and young people in Newton Heath, Cheetham Hill, New Moston, Charlestown and Prestwich.

Sports Development (partnering with Parrenthorn High School in Prestwich and Miles Platting FC)

We continue to work with partners to help them identify and obtain funding which they can use to develop sport. We recently helped Parrenthorn High School obtain a grant from Sport England and we are working with them to get more girls into football. We are also working with ADACTUS Housing Association and other partners to develop football in Miles Platting.

Working with Young Offenders (partnering with Werrington YOI)

Our coaches Roy Soule, Phil Schofield and Swampy Bennett have been working at Werrington YOI for some time now training young offenders as sports leaders and have been very encouraged by the enthusiastic response from staff and inmates.

Music (partnering with Manchester Music Service and New East Manchester)

We were very pleased to work with the Manchester Youth Service using funding from New East Manchester to run singing sessions with children from Ancoats, Beswick and Newton Heath who all learned FC United songs and came along to a match to sing them. We look forward to more projects of this nature next season.