Season 2021/22 brought so many wonderful memories on the pitch, with Fulham crowned Champions and returning to the Premier League for next season. The performances of Mitrović, Wilson, Cairney, Reed and Ream brought joy to each and every supporter at Craven Cottage, playing some exhilarating football across 46 league fixtures.
Those at Fulham FC Foundation were equally busy, with over 25 community programmes operating in five boroughs across South West London. Below details just some of the major highlights and milestones that took place over the past 12 months, demonstrating the impact of these charitable works, building better lives through sport.
Mental Health Matchday
As part of More Than A Game, our mental health programme, Fulham FC Foundation launched the Kick Off A Conversation campaign in early October 2021 to promote support seeking behaviours. This culminated with the Mental Health Matchday on the 16th of October as Fulham took on Queens Park Rangers at Craven Cottage.
A range of activations took place around the matchday, including:
- The distribution of 500 flyers pre-game
- An information stall on Stevenage Road staffed by our Health & Wellbeing team
- 9,000 clappers with information on the campaign
- Features in the matchday programme and on the ground’s LED screens
“Football is such a uniting outlet, where people connect, share experiences and support each other, so launching the More Than A Game campaign on the mental health matchday was a powerful way of celebrating the importance of kicking off a conversation about our mental health. We know that the pandemic has affected people’s mental health in many ways and still many people do not receive the support they need, so even a simple check in with your mates at football can make a difference.” - Athina Papailiou, Mental Health Practitioner, Fulham FC Foundation
Roupell Park Pitch Opening
Fulham FC Foundation have been delivering activities in partnership with the Roupell Park Resident Management Organisation (RMO) since 2017, on a concrete pitch in Brixton Hill. Over the past 12 months, that partnership - in conjunction with the Football Foundation, the Premier League and the Veolia Environmental Trust - has funded the development of a new 3G multi-use games area facility for the local community to use.
On Tuesday 12th April, an official opening event was held, hosted by the Roupell Park RMO and Fulham FC Foundation, with a showcase of different football activities and remarks from local dignitaries. First team player Nathaniel Chalobah was a special guest for the event.
“Football was my escape in terms of meeting friends and making friends. I actually grew up across the street from here and we didn’t really have these sorts of pitches at that time, until I moved to Gypsy Hill where we had this type of pitch and that’s how I started to develop my skills. For me, most importantly it gives kids a different stimulation. When you’re young it’s very easy to just be indoors and play your PlayStation all day. But if you can come out here, meet your friends and get some exercise, it’s incredible really.” - Nathaniel Chalobah, Fulham midfielder
Premier League Changemakers
In October 2021, Fulham FC Foundation hosted a week-long course delivering the Premier League Changemakers programme.
Changemakers, a joint initiative from the Premier League Charitable Trust and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, is designed to empower young women specifically in areas around leadership, confidence and teamwork.
As well as classroom-based learning and football sessions (of course!), our Changemakers cohort were joined by some special guests across the week – including local female officers from the Met Police and FFCW’s own Kate Foster who serves the City of London as a firefighter in her professional life.
“The Premier League Changemakers leadership course provided the opportunity to inspire and empower young women and girls who are part of our Premier League Kicks and Inspires programmes, to develop their personal skills and leadership qualities, whilst enabling the young people to identify the challenges and barriers that surround gender equality and mental health.
“Premier League Changemakers really helped with my confidence and helped also with my teamwork skills. Before the course, I didn’t really want to talk in front of new people but as the days went past I got more and more comfortable. It was really fun and enjoyable and I think it benefited us in a good way." - Olivia, Premier League Changemakers participant
Walking Football Festival
On the morning of Friday 8th April, some 65 keen Walking Footballers took to the astroturf of the Walton Xcel Centre for Fulham FC Foundation’s inaugural Walking Football Festival.
Divided into 10 teams across two different groups, these participants enjoyed a full morning of football played competitively, but of course in the right sporting spirit. Players had come from across Fulham’s different Walking Football venues as well as from elsewhere, with a wide range of ages, some not yet 30 and others beyond 90 years old!
“Walking football is a great opportunity to get outside in the fresh air and get some weekly exercise in. One of the best things about Walking Football is the camaraderie that’s so easily built between players which carries through to the coffee after the session, too. All of these things are huge for improving both physical and mental health.” - Laura Everton, Health Development Officer, Fulham FC Foundation
Social Action Challenge Finals
On Monday 28th March, three cohorts of young people from our Premier League Inspires programmes at Elmgreen and Hollyfield Schools attended the Fulham FC Foundation Social Action Finals Event at Craven Cottage. These were the shortlisted groups chosen to present their social action projects, focused on environmental sustainability, to our panel of judges. This panel, made up of judges from the Club, FFC Women’s Team, and Club sponsor World Mobile, asked each group questions about their project before scoring them on the six criteria of high quality social action.
These young people, all of which were undertaking a presentation for the first time, did a brilliant job in getting their ideas across but unfortunately there could only be one winner. This was the X Cohort from The Elmgreen School, who earnt a FFC signed shirt for their school and a £150 prize fund to go and deliver their project in the local community. However, World Mobile also kindly donated extra funds so that each of our three shortlisted groups were able to go back into their community and deliver their project.
“The Fulham FC Foundation Social Actions Finals is a yearly event, organised to give our participants the opportunity to make a difference in their local communities. Teams of up to 10 young people are challenged to come up with a social action project to target an issue in their local community that they feel passionate about. These teams will be supported by a Fulham FC Foundation staff member, but all of the research and planning that goes into their project is completed by the young people. The Social Action Finals is such an important event because it lets young people take responsibility for making a difference in their local community, which in turn helps them improve their local community for everyone.“ - Richard Morris, Secondary Education & Careers Manager, Fulham FC Foundation
Foundation Community Day
On Sunday 8th May, Fulham FC Foundation participants had the rare opportunity to play football at Craven Cottage at our inaugural Community Day. More than 150 young footballers enjoyed over two hours on the hallowed turf in the morning, cycling through a number of skills stations including passing, shooting and match play. Those involved included participants from our DisAbility programmes and Female Football groups, as well as regular participants from Saturday Skills Club and Soccer Schools programmes.
It was a special occasion for all present, bringing together participants and staff from across Foundation activities at Fulham’s iconic home ground, a fine example of building better lives through sport.
“It created a really strong message that demonstrated how valuable the Foundation is in the community. It was brilliant to see so many participants signed up and the staff were all so committed to making the event so successful. There was a lovely atmosphere with friends and family in the stands and lots of excellent comments overheard. Callum and his friends all loved it.” - Cheryl Horsteads, Fulham FC Foundation parent
Paul Smithers Cup
In early May at Craven Cottage some 200 participants from our Premier League Kicks programme competed in a small sided tournament named in honour of former Youth and Communities Manager Paul Smithers. Teams were formed from each of the weekly Premier League Kicks sessions Fulham host in the community, bringing together young people from different areas in a safe and positive environment. The Paul Smithers Cup showcased the best of the Kicks programme, bringing young people together, providing them with additional opportunities via football.
“Paul Smithers was an integral part of the Fulham FC Foundation Kicks programme. Over his 12 years at the Foundation he impacted thousands of young people’s lives positively, and from his past work that impact is still seen to this day. The Paul Smithers Cup will be an annual tournament to not only give young people a chance to play some competitive football, but to remember and celebrate Paul Smithers’ life and work.” - Hussein Mohammed, Youth & Communities Manager, Fulham FC Foundation
Charity Matchday
Fulham’s home fixture against Coventry City earlier this year was the official charity matchday for season 2021/22, a major fundraising event for Fulham FC Foundation.
Chiefly amongst the fundraising efforts was our Charity Draw run by PlayFundWin, with a wide variety of unique Fulham FC prizes on offer. Amongst the most popular were a ‘coffee date’ with Joe Bryan, the chance to meet Marco Silva and Luis Boa Morte after First Team training, and the signed football with which Aleksandar Mitrović broke the Championship scoring record earlier in the year. The Charity Draw was widely embraced by fans, with over one thousand tickets sold and more than £4,000 raised for Fulham FC Foundation.
The matchday also provided Foundation participants to be involved in the game experience, with young people from our Kicks Development Club acting as ball-people and some of our more senior participants from Walking Football involved in a small-sided game on the pitch at half-time. This was the first time since the beginning of the pandemic Fulham FC Foundation had been able to run such activations around a fixture, an important milestone as we look forward to the 22/23 season.
“Each season the Foundation get the opportunity to run a Charity Matchday ‘takeover’ at a home game at Craven Cottage. This provides a great opportunity to raise funds, increase awareness and engage with supporters. We were therefore delighted to showcase our work at the Coventry City fixture in April. As a football club, we are renowned for being a family club and a community club. As the Official Charity of Fulham Football Club, we are proud to represent our Club and our supporters everyday in the local communities in which we serve, delivering our mission of building better lives through sport.” - Mike McSweeney, CEO, Fulham FC Foundation
DisAbility Matchday March
The third annual DisAbility Matchday March took place on Saturday 5th March, with participants walking a four mile loop starting and finishing at Craven Cottage in time for kick-off for Fulham’s clash against Blackburn Rovers.
After last year’s event became a ‘March from Home’ virtual event, the event was able to return to its original format, bringing Fulham supporters and DisAbility programme participants together, face to face, to support our ongoing provision of activities.
“As a family we absolutely loved being able to participate in the FFC Foundation Matchday March again! The Foundation not only benefits our son Tom but extends its arms around families and for that we’re truly grateful. The walk was a brilliant way of raising money to should our enormous gratitude to all the incredible staff and inspirational coaches.” - Sue Prisk, Fulham FC Foundation parent
Surrey Football for All League
Surrey Football for All is a monthly league competition for Pan DisAbility sides from across the county, with four sides representing Fulham this season - Under-12s, Under-16s and two Adult teams. These players all attend regular Fulham FC Foundation sessions, including our weekly Pan DisAbility football, Active Autism sessions or Down’s Syndrome Badgers Football.
“Our first season in the league has been fantastic. For a group of players who had never played together before, and with a changing group at each round of fixtures we really grew as a team and a group. The atmosphere between us has been great and that's clearly reflected by us winning the respect award. Coming second in the league by one point, which we would've won had we been able to attend every round, is a testament to the teamwork of all of us and the support of our coaches. It can be easy to play 'kick it long' football at disability level but I've loved seeing us play proper passing football and enjoy getting everyone involved in our games.” - Drew, Fulham FC Foundation DisAbility footballer
