Fulham FC Foundation’s Premier League Inspires programme works with secondary school students to develop skills and knowledge in young people to prepare them for the adult world. One way this is done is through social action projects, youth led initiatives addressing local issues that allow our participants to demonstrate their leadership and teamwork.
Five of our Premier League Inspires partner schools have been involved in social action across 2022/23, working on a wide variety of topics – from protecting the planet to mental health awareness and Black History Month.
Two of these schools, Raynes Park High School and The Elmgreen School, focused on protecting the planet as part of the Premier League’s Social Action Challenge. Starting from November 2022, each group started to plan their project. The groups were then tasked to put together a presentation to prepare themselves in February to a panel of judges as part of Fulham FC Foundation’s Social Action Challenge finals event at Craven Cottage. This panel was made up of Club and Foundation staff along with a special guest, Lucy Peirce from the Premier League Charitable Fund.
This was a new and exciting experience for the students to attend Craven Cottage and present in the fantastic hospitality boxes. Public speaking was a first for most if not all the students and through the presentation they showed an increase in confidence, being able to apply the skills they had learnt during Premier League Inspires classes as part of the Princes Trust qualification.
After presenting, each group was asked questions by the panel of judges to help the students edit and adapt their project before beginning to implement these projects in their local communities.
These projects then began to come to life from May 2023 in each school. The groups started to implement their ideas, by creating energy saving posters, litter picking in their nearby parks, using recycled milk bottles to create plant pots and watering cans, and collecting small plastic bottles to build an eco-brick greenhouse.
One of our groups – the Eco Stars – even got to travel to Tottenham’s stadium in July for the Premier League Inspires Challenge Event, where they were able to meet other schools and take part in a variety of activities and workshops while also completing a mini stadium tour.
Meanwhile, students from Dunraven School, Holyfield School and Ark Globe Academy were involved in social action projects relating to Mental Health Awareness Week. Each school group were tasked to come up with some amazing ideas to share to their wider school community about how important mental health is to talk about. This was done through creating a video, putting a presentation together and making posters relating to athletes suffering or have suffered from mental health.
As our students found across this season, social action projects are extremely important as part of the Premier League Inspires programme because it is all about the students coming together as a group to positively benefit their local community or school and develop important skills to help them in the future. It gives the students responsibility and ownership, and by the end of the project a sense of achievement and satisfaction, something they can be proud of and that has an impact on the world around them.
“I think our social action project has gone well. It has really helped me improve and develop my communication skills by working in a team. Our project was a big ask and a challenge at times but I wouldn’t want to change our idea. It is nice because it is benefitting our school, by getting people to recycle, but also the things we will grow can be used at school” – Billy from Eco Stars – Student, The Elmgreen School.
“We were incredibly impressed by how engaged, committed and mature our Year 9 students were when working on their social action project. The Fulham Football Club Foundation provided our students with a number of exciting opportunities, which inspired and challenged our students to not only think about social issues, but to take action and do something about it. We were so proud of them delivering their proposal for their social action project in front of a panel of judges. A number of our students were shy, apprehensive and nervous before presenting, however they conquered their fears and did so well in conveying why their social action mattered and how it affected the rest of their community” – Mr Bolili – Teacher Raynes Park School
“The social action challenge has helped the students focus their attention on their school environment in particular. Thinking of problem areas they see on a day to day basis and seeing them come up with creative solutions to try to reduce these is really refreshing to see. I hope that it will have a lasting impact on them” - Christian Thompson – Fulham FC Foundation Sessional Coach.
To find out more about our Premier League Inspires programme please email foundationinfo@fulhamfc.com
