West Ham United Foundation
The community department of West Ham United is celebrating the start of it’s 25th year of service in East London and Essex and to mark this amazing milestone the Club has announced it’s re-launch as the West Ham United Foundation.
‘One of our key aims is to break down barriers to sports participation and, in doing so, unite the local community through the power of football. The foundation also seeks to creat life-changing opportunities for it’s participants, as well as facilitating the West Ham player pathway for those who excel’
The foundation has worked with Leadership Through Sport & Business since 2014 and the outcomes speak for themselves with 80% of the last two cohorts being offered full time jobs by their apprenticeship employers. The programme reaches young people who employers may otherwise struggle to find. The West Ham United Foundation is a Prime Delivery Partner for this programme, providing a fantastic support for these young people.
Since the Trust began in 1990 they have made some incredible achievements. The West Ham United Community Sports Trust’s flagship Trainee and Mentoring Scheme has seen the Trust work with Barking and Dagenham local authority. This scheme enables young people aged 18-25 to receive mentoring from the Community Trust’s coach educators and sports assessors, and delivers high quality coaching to over 1,000 primary school children from local communities every week.
The nationally-run Kicks project is the Premier League’s flagship inclusion initiative which seeks to divert disaffected youth via a range of positive activites and acrredited outcomes. The West Ham United Community Sports Trust Kicks projects work closely with the Local Authorities, Safer Neighbourhood Team, Children Youth Services, and Youth offending teams to establish a daily routine of sporting and educative activities which are designed to gain volunteering and employment opportunities. Exit strategies from the Kicks project include partnerships with the Princes Trust and Community Links.
Newham College
Newham College is the education delivery partner for the West Ham United cohort.