Aston Villa Foundation helps residents earn coaching badges

Aston Villa Foundation helps residents earn coaching badges

Seventeen local residents completed an FA Level One Coaching Football course at Villa Park on Tuesday, thanks to the Aston Villa’s ‘Supporting Our Own’ initiative.

The Aston Villa Foundation offered the places to aspiring coaches from Aston, Erdington, Perry Barr and Ladywood, who were fully subsidised – grants which were made possible by a donation from the Aston Villa Lions Clubs and a portion of the proceeds from the Fifty50 matchday draw.

Give back to local community

Activating local football projects and improving the standard of local club coaching were the main aims behind the initiative, and two of the coaches, Farooq Hussain and Abul Kalam, believe it will be a massive benefit to them when they return to coach at Real Aston FC. Abul said:

“We, being local lads representing local clubs, are very grateful that Villa have offered this opportunity to us and now we can go out and give back to our local community through football.

“It’s good to see that things like this will actually make a difference to Aston and the surrounding areas. Football is not just a game – it brings communities together and it’s great that Villa are pushing it in an area where it’s much-needed.”

Farooq added:

“Villa have done an outstanding thing for the local community and the coaches here have offered more help than you would expect. Our tutor has been amazing and all the other coaches have shared their personal experiences, which makes a lot of difference.”

Making an instant impact at local clubs

The course was run by Corinne Mitchell, an FA Tutor and Workforce Development Officer at the Foundation, and she was delighted with the progress made by the group, who ranged in age from 16 to 52. She said:

“This is the first step on the coaching ladder but it’s also the most important. It will provide the 17 coaches with the skills and knowledge to make an instant impact at local clubs, and it will also give them the confidence that they can attain more coaching badges in the future.

“The attitude shown by all the of the group has been fantastic and it’s important that they leave knowing Aston Villa supports local coaches and growing the game at the grassroots level.”

Later this year, the Foundation will again be offering 18 subsidised places on an FA Level One Coaching Football course, so keep an eye on their Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as the club website, for more details.

The FA Level 1 in Coaching Football, which usually costs £165, provides an introduction to coaching the game and working with players from under-7s to adult age groups.

Supporting Our Own, the club’s Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy which launched in September, was introduced to support the delivery of projects and activities in and around Birmingham to promote sport, health, wellbeing, education and inclusive opportunities.