EFL Community Weekend: Active Through Football with Saints Foundation
Every football club has a responsibility to the community it exists within to make a concerted effort to improve the lives of the people living there. And that’s why we’re proud to have our charity, Saints Foundation, working out in the community on a day-to-day basis. On the first ever EFL Community Weekend, we're joining football clubs across the country in highlighting the work we do in our local areas.
As part of this year’s campaign, we want to introduce you to some of our amazing community heroes, and Saints Foundation’s ‘Active Through Football’ project.
Meet David Warnes, Saints Foundation’s Active Through Football Coordinator. The project offers free football-based activities to encourage people aged 16+ in St Mary’s, and the surrounding area, to lead healthier, more active lives.
And it’s important work, as David explains:
“The community was selected because of high levels of deprivation and social isolation. It's also a very multicultural space with limited facilities so it was up to us to put together a project which increases the activity levels of adults within the area.”
The programme has been running for a couple of years and is having a positive impact. A variety of sessions are run across the week, giving people the opportunity to play football for free.
But without support from heroes within the community, David says making Active Through Football successful would be much more challenging.
“With Active Through Football, we have a place-based approach. This means focusing on one area in the city, enabling us to build relationships with people in the community and gain trust so we can have a stronger impact with the work we do.”
Two such community heroes Saints Foundation rely upon are Danielle Eccleston and Abdoulie Sanneh. Danielle is the Centre Manager at Northam Community Centre, where we host some of our sessions.
Danielle is at the heart of the Northam community and works closely with the likes of David to engage people with Active Through Football. There can be language barriers, nerves over attending sessions or a lack of exposure to what’s on offer and Danielle helps facilitate our work.
“I grew up in Northam and there used to be a lot more facilities than there are now. At the moment, Northam has very little and it’s frustrating but we have Saints and they're here to help us. They engage with the community and I think it's important we make the most of what the club offers.
I get involved in the sessions myself and I love it. I want the people here to be able to benefit from what Saints are trying to achieve.”
Abdoulie is another of our community heroes – he’s a Community Cohesion and Diversity Officer for Southampton City Council. He’s passionate about his work to make sure opportunities are made available to diverse communities in the city.
Abdoulie says working with Saints Foundation to support the city is crucial.
“The football club is located in an area of the city which is deprived of easy access to opportunities. Football clubs are multi-million pound businesses capable of offering support and Saints Foundation are doing that and contributing immensely.
We used to have places in the city young people could go and play football or engage in activities but they’re not happening as they should be now so there's a gap in service. Saints Foundation has been addressing that and the community can take confidence in knowing there’s a flexible provision they can tap into.
I hope this work continues into the future because there’s a need and demand for it.”
If you live in the SO14 area and you’re interested in joining us for an Active Through Football session, or you want to register an interest in coming along, you can do so on our website: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/saints-foundation-active-through-football
