Working with Looked after Children

Northerncare are a national children’s residential care provider who have partnered FC United from its very first season.

In a ground breaking scheme, Northerncare have offered free match tickets to all FC United home games for looked after children and their carers. This scheme has enabled children and young people from right across the North West and further afield to access our games and for some, it has been their first exposure to live sport. There have even been enquires from as far away as Devon and Southwark.

The relationship with Northerncare has gone from strength to strength and there is now a well established FC United and Northerncare looked after children tournament which we hold twice a year. Numbers for this tournament have increased year on year and have become a fixture in many looked after children’s homes’ calendars. The tournaments are organised by Northerncare and staffed by FC community coaches and volunteers who kindly gave up their time again. A medal ceremony and prize-giving buffet was held afterwards and all the competing teams were invited to today’s game.

Making it work with Bernardo’s

Our work with the Barnardo’s Making It Work project has been a highlight of our community work this year.

Making It Work supports careleavers who are neither in employment nor in education. Together with Barnardo’s, FC United’s community team developed a course that would engage and develop the young people the project works with.

The initial course we put together was based on the Sports Leaders Day Certificate which is a qualification in general sports coaching. We also arranged volunteering placements for the young people on our various playschemes and after-school clubs across the city so that the young people could get some hands on experience to go with their qualification.

The feedback from Barnardo’s and the young people themselves was very positive and we were very pleased to hear that some of the young people who came on the course are now back at college following courses in Sport.

Barnardo’s wrote to us to say,

"Throughout the provision of the course we have been extremely impressed with the quality of the course content, delivery and staff that FC United have provided; feedback regarding FC United from both our workers and from our young people has been universally excellent and we are greatly looking forward to continuing and strengthening our partnership with them."

We have now developed the course to include health trainer training and radio work. This season, as well as helping us to deliver school holiday playschemes across Manchester, young careleavers will also help us to deliver health education training to primary school children and enhance the quality of our radio station, FCUM Radio.