I used to run football session in my local area for the ages of 6 years up to 23 years old and made such and impact of the community by bringing children from all backgrounds together to enjoy a game off football and allow them to get active whilst meeting new friends and enjoying the great outdoors rather than being stuck in front of a T.V.

PLEASE HELP BY DONATING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TO BRING SMILES AND HAPPINESS BACK TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND CHILDREN

I began volunteering for park lives who ran the football sessions in local parks for free but the sessions were only aimed at 6-12 year old which left some of the older ones on the sideline which made them feel left out. I had a chat with the older boys and girls and asked if they had any suggestions and they came up with a 5 a-side league. I spoke with park lives and they gave me the go ahead to set it all up which i did. Everything was going so well for about 6-8 months when i was asked to attend a meeting with park lives and another organisation called Hatrick. When i attended they said that because of their health and safety rules i had to play all children of the same age against each other and could not allow mixed age and gender teams to play along side one another. I stated that these children picked their own teams and the whole point of the sessions was for the children to have fun and mix with one another. The both parties would not have this and said they could not longer fund me for the kit,equipment and trophies so i tried my best to do this out of my own pocket but eventually it got too much and i couldnt afford to continue. As a result all football sessions stopped and to make things worse the park has now became a ghost town and is starting to get vandalized. When i was running the sessions i taught the kids to take pride in their park and they even used to clean the pitches and surrounding areas before the sessions began but now i think they feel disheartened and have been left with nothing to do. Even the local swimming pool in the park has been shut down.

I still continuously get asked by the children in the street if i would start the sessions back up and would really like to but just need some funding to get it started again. I eventually want to be able to roll this out across the country as it had such a positive effect on the community and children and know it could make a massive difference to any area.

Please check out my links from when i was running the sessions until mid 2016 when i had to call it a day.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/chronicle-champions-elswick-volunteer-football-7916060

http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/a-local-hero-newcastles-neils-kegg-takes-parklives-into-a-league-of-his-own