NORWICH City's Football in the Community have been awarded a significant financial grant to help them support and expand some of their key community projects with young people in the county.

The grant of £594,912 has been provided by the Youth Sector Development Fund (YSDF), whose aim is to promote and support organisations to deliver effective services and activities for young people in England, particularly the most disadvantaged.

This is part of a national initiative by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), who have announced an investment of £11million for 25 organisations to deliver positive activities to over 20,000 young people across the country over the next two years.

Norwich City's FITC, a registered charity based at Carrow Road, plays a key part in the Club's community outreach work to over 50,000 children and families on an annual basis.

Through a mixture of grant funding and business support, the YSDF will support Football in the Community to sustain some of their excellent initiatives but also enable them to increase their number of projects in Norfolk - helping more young people.

The funding will support the launch of four new 'Kickz' projects based in Dereham, North Walsham, Bowthorpe and King's Lynn, with four new 'Goalz' projects in Great Yarmouth, Thetford, King's Lynn and Norwich.

There will also be some key support to create new jobs that include a Partnership Development Manager, Marketing and Communications Manager, and administration and financial support to appoint further football/sports coaches to deliver a number of different initiatives.

FITC FUNDING: Evan Edwards of the YSDF presents
Football in the Community Chairman Kevan Platt with a
cheque to help support new community projects


Commenting on the news, Director of FITC Ian Thornton said: "Key staff have worked very hard to create a comprehensive application that gave us a strong chance to be successful with our bid for this major funding. Over 900 organisations applied for the funding with 25 being successful. We are extremely proud to be one of the selected organisations.

"The YSDF objectives are to help us increase the number of projects we undertake through financial and business support. We aim to make the most out of this funding by making the charity more sustainable and effective whilst making a positive difference to many young people with the initiatives on offer."

For further information on Football in the Community please visit www.fitc.org.uk or call 01603 761122.

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Kickz is a national programme run by football clubs, using football and sport to engage in key partnership work with various organisations such as the Police, youth offending teams, housing organisations and district councils. Its aim is to tackle anti-social behaviour in deprived areas, whilst giving sporting opportunities. Coaching sessions are offered free of charge three times a week. Through the coaching sessions key instructors come in to deliver sessions based on sex education, gun and knife crime, health and fitness and career aspirations. These workshops are the used to help educate the clients attending by building their social skills and helping them deal with every day life.

For further information on Kickz please visit: http://www.footballfoundation.org.uk/our-schemes/kickz/

Goalz is a course organised and delivered by Football in the Community and The BlueCat Initiative. The project is aimed at reaching clients that are NEET (Not In Education, Employment or Training). Through the project the clients receive 20 weeks of OCN-based sessions to improve their employability and offer sports qualifications to leading clients. An hour of action-packed sport complements the education sessions while giving them the chance to take part in sports not regularly available to them.