Aaron Hughes and David Stockdale lent their support to CSPAN, a successful new partnership between all the key sport and physical activity organisations in the Royal Borough of Kingston, at the club's Motspur Park Training ground.

CSPAN, which stands for Community Sport & Physical Activity Network, has been awarded a fund of £357,000 by the Premier League/PFA Community Fund and Sport England, to deliver a three-year programme to develop opportunities for disabled athletes, girls and women as well as to create further openings to encourage more young volunteers in sport.

The Premier League/PFA Community Fund enables Premier League clubs' community departments to apply for grants to start innovative new projects or develop and enhance the many projects already delivered. The £12.9m three-year fund is administered and managed by the Football Foundation.

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: "CSPAN represents exactly the type of project that the Premier League/PFA Community Fund was set up to invest in.

"Thanks to this funding, there will be a radical change in the range and quality of sports coaching on offer to thousands of young people, especially girls, young women and those with a disability, across a number of areas in Kingston.

"An unprecedented 1.42 million people took part in community activities run by the 20 Premier League clubs last season. With groundbreaking projects such as CSPAN starting all the time, I fully expect that figure to continue to rise."

The launch also forms part of the Premier League's Creating Chances Places for Players initiative, which aims to highlight the continued and increasing commitment the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs have to their local communities.

Every Barclays Premier League club from September to November will be turning the spotlight on the good work which they carry out within their local areas.

The launch, which celebrates the successful partnerships and formation of Kingston's CSPAN, has taken place on the same day as the official handover of the Paralympic Torch from the Paralympic Games in Beijing to London for the 2012 games.

Motspur Park hosted its very own torch handover ceremony and the players helped showcase three different projects - a girls' football tournament, athletics for boys and girls and wheelchair users who were playing 'boccia', a paralympic sport.

Alistair Mackintosh, Chief Executive of Fulham Football Club, said: "Fulham as a club has a strong commitment to our local community and is passionate about the benefits sport can bring to all, so I am delighted that this funding will enable us to work with the Royal Borough of Kingston to create new sporting opportunities for young people with a disability and to inspire young women to lead healthy and active lifestyles through sport.

"This funding forms part of nearly £500,000 the Community Sports Trust has sourced to support community sport in Kingston, over this and coming years."

Hilary Garner, Chair of Kingston's CSPAN, added: "Girls just wanna 'Have Fun', 'Good Sports' and 'Positive Minds' (the names of the three projects), represent an important investment into the well being of the people of Kingston. This funding is welcomed with open arms as it will significantly improve access and widen opportunities for all."

Councillor Simon James, Executive member for Sport and Leisure at Kingston Council, said: "Great News for Kingston. These projects will engage with priority groups working with these two key partners - Fulham Community Sports Trust and Kingston Volunteer Centre and will develop and deliver sporting opportunities across the borough.

"This investment will go a long way to securing the future of our potential athletes and volunteers."

To Read about Fulham's support for ECHO, click here.