Communities

Premier League helping Maidenhead be a club for all

10 Oct 2017
Maidenhead United community work

The National League Trust, supported by the League, has allowed non-league side connect with local community

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Things are on the up at Maidenhead United.

The club are 12th in the Vanarama National League, the division below the Football League, and they are helping people young and old more than ever in their community in Berkshire.

The club have teamed up with a local charity, Stand Out For Autism, to run three autism-friendly football sessions every Sunday for those aged 5-15 with the condition and for their siblings.

Not only do the sessions give the children a chance to exercise, but for some they have been a step towards greater things.

"We had one young man with autism who loved football," Maidenhead chief executive Jon Adams says. "We were able to send him on an FA Level 1 course and after getting the qualification, he came back to the autism session and did work experience with us.

"Communication was his most difficult challenge and it was fantastic to see him overcoming that and, with the support of our coaches, being able to coach himself."

Under the banner of Magpies in the Community, the club are helping to make the young and old in their community improve their health and wellbeing.

The school football coaching programme engages more than 500 children a week while for for older citizens the club’s weekly walking football project has been such a success that the participants now take part in a local league.

These programmes were all able to start thanks to the help of the Premier League.

Together with the Professional Footballers' Association, the Premier League funds the National League Trust (NLT), which supports community programmes run by clubs in the three Vanarama National League divisions at levels five and six of the football pyramid. 

Maidenhead's walking football team in action
Maidenhead's walking football team now compete in a local league

"The NLT provided us with funding to get up and running," says Maidenhead chief executive Jon Adams. "It was the stepping stone.

"It has helped us go from doing absolutely nothing within our community three years ago to building an extensive community programme which continues to grow and develop."

Maidenhead are promoting the women's game with female-only football sessions and are also looking to the future, working with youngsters in local junior football teams.

Those teams are invited as guests or mascots on matchdays, meeting the first-team players and enjoying the thrill of taking penalties on the pitch at half-time.

"It's an important programme for us," says Adams. "It's a great way for our fans to see that we are positively impacting on the community and it gives the children the opportunity to feel like they are being supported by the club." 

Adams is not resting on his laurels and the club are aiming to expand their reach in the community to local primary schools.

Through Premier League Primary Stars, Magpies in the Community is looking to help local schools develop more effective PE lessons and use the power of football to inspire schoolchildren.

"It's amazing how we have grown in the last three years," Adams says. "With a mixture of funding and having people with the right skills to engage with the community, you can develop activities that are going to make a difference.

"When you are known as an organisation that's prepared to do things differently and work with groups that are more challenging, people will come to you because they think you will come up with solutions.

"That's important. We want to be that organisation: open to all and wanting to work with all to help those communities do things differently.

"So we are very grateful for the support of the Premier League to make that happen."

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