Feature

Our communities

12 Feb 2015
Stoke City disability programme participant Anton

How Premier League investment is making a positive impact on individuals and communities across the country

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Our future
The fans

We take the spirit and energy of the action on the pitch and use it as a force for good off the pitch.

Challenging prejudice, building confidence, bringing people together, creating opportunities and encouraging ambition.

Here are some of our stories.

Premier League Primary Stars

Meet Cadogan, one of 260,000 schoolchildren who have been involved in the Premier League Primary Stars programme.

Cadogan used to find competitive sport difficult but with the help of Brighton & Hove Albion, one of 101 clubs to run the programme, he has improved his teamwork and communication skills and is finding school a much more positive experience.

"I can't express it enough what a different child he is," says his dad Cris. "He's happy. He communicates, he interacts with everybody."

Facilities

Rusthall FC are at the heart of a village community in Kent. But any progress on the pitch was hampered by a poor pitch prone to waterlogging.

The club now have a new pitch with proper drainage, as well as new floodlights and an upgraded stadium, thanks to the Premier League's Football Stadia Improvement Fund.

"Without the work we wouldn't have been able to stay in the division we've just been promoted from," says Rusthall chairman Joe Croker.

Rusthall benefited from one of more than 2,000 grants the FSIF has handed out since it was launched in 2000.

Premier League Girls Football

This is Maddie Szwed, a mum who used to stand on the sidelines watching her daughter play football.

Thanks to Crystal Palace's Palace For Life Foundation and the Premier League Girls Football programme, Maddie has developed a love for football, playing in a mums' football session every week and becoming a qualified coach, helping her daughter’s team in Caterham, Surrey.

"When I'm playing football with the ladies, coaching the girls, or at a game, I switch off to everything else that's going on in my life," she says. "It's time back for me."

Maddie is one of almost 59,000 people who have taken part in the PL Girls initiative since it began in 2013.

Disability

Meet Anton, 11, who loved football but struggled to get involved because of cerebral palsy.

Thanks to the Premier League/BT Disability Fund, Anton started playing for Stoke City and now represents the club, with dreams of representing Team GB at the Paralympics.

"We never thought, five years ago, we'd ever see our child with a pair of football boots on," says his mum Janine. 

Premier League Kicks
Jessica Mendes, Spurs PL Kicks

Jessica and her family moved to London from Guinea-Bissau, but she found it hard to settle, speaking no English.

But, she attended Premier League Kicks sessions run by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, and the warm welcome she got there gave her the confidence to play football and make friends. Now she is working towards a BTEC in Sports qualification.

"For me, Kicks means that a dream has come true," she says.

PL Kicks works to help hard-to-reach youngsters in some of the most high-need areas, with almost 250,000 participants taking part since 2006.

See: Jessica's story

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