Luton Town Community Trust Newsletter Issue 2

COMMUNITY TRUST

LTFC COMMUNITY TRUST NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 2 | JAN 2017

LEISURE & CULTURE AWARD 2016 Registered Charity | Charity No. 1123078

SPORT | EDUCATION | HEALTH | INCLUSION

2016

Trust voted Luton’s best

Luton Town FC Community Trust staff attended the prestigious Luton’s Best Awards 2016 in December to receive Love Luton's award recognising community achievement having been voted winners in the Leisure and Culture category.

The Love Luton event held at Luton Hoo recognised the Trusts work over the last year which has seen the numbers of participants rise to over 3,000 every week in all of the community projects operated by the Trust.

From free schools PE coaching to late night centres for disadvantaged young men, from promoting the women and girls game to

running adult and childrens disability football teams the award recognised the wide range of projects that have made an impact on the leisure and cultural community landscape in Luton.

Head of Trust, Kevin Thoburn, commented “the award recognises all of the hard work our growing team of dedicated coaches and educational staff have put in this year and just how much the Trust has grown in the last couple of years. It’s a recognition of how important the people of Luton feel about the position our football club occupies right at the heart of the many local communities that combined make Luton the great place it is today.”

ZAK MEETS GARETH SOUTHGATE Little did Community Trust employee Zak Tafarder know when he met Gareth Southgate last year at Kenilworth Road, that he would be literally rubbing shoulders with the next England manager! Taking time out of his busy day working with England U21 internationals, Gareth took time out to say hello to Zak. Zak not only works in the trust office, but also plays for our adult disability team during the season and plans to visit Wembley for a game in the summer to see Gareth at work with the full international team.

EASYJET SPONSORS FREE SCHOOL PE

It was a great way to start the new year when the Trust to received confirmation that easyjet were renewing their sponsorship of our Free Schools Visit Project for 2017. It is the third year in a row easyjet have continued to support the work of the Trust in local schools since the original shirt sponsorship deal ended. Head of Trust, Kevin Thoburn said, ‘we are delighted to retain an association with such a strong brand and major employer in the town – this sponsorship is one of the reasons we are able to deliver over 1,500 free hours of PE into schools each year reaching over 1,800 local children each week. It's great to have easyjet as a partner in investing in the health and wellbeing of the next generation ’.

Copyright 2017 © Luton Town FC Community Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Kenilworth Stadium, 1 Maple Road, LUTON LU4 8AW 01582 737568 | Charity No. 1123078 community@lutontown.co.uk Childline: 0800 11 11 Dedicated Historic Helpline: 0800 023 2642

lutontown.co.uk/club/community facebook.com/ltfc.communitytrust twitter.com/ltfc_community

2 PLAYERS VISIT WOODLANDS SEN SCHOOL It was a great day for Jordan Cook and Liam Gooch, who recently visited Woodlands Special Educational Needs School in Marsh Farm, to support students on aChildren’s in Need Day .The players and Trust coaching staff spent all morning at the school leading various activities such as basketball matches and bowling competitions. We've built up a great relationship with the school over the last few years and look forward to working with Woodlands football school team as part of our free school visit project.

HATTERS TRUST ON THE MOVE! People may think Bedfordshire is a small county – but try visiting 40 schools a week and you will soon realise it’s not that small. From Leighton Buzzard to Biggleswade and Luton to Bedford our community coaches are out and about every school day coaching local children and thanks to Dunstable based Vauxhall Dealer Thurlow Nunn the job is made easier following their generous donation of a sponsored Vauxhall Astra to the Trust. The donation saves the Trust thousands of pounds a year and this money goes straight into providing more free PE lessons to local schools.

FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT TALENT ID The trust welcomed Swindon Town FC Development Squads to Creasey Park Community Stadium in Dunstable over the new year half term to give all of our young recruited boys a series of tough games ranging from u7 to u16 age groups.

It’s all part of offering elite pathways to local boys into our academy through our school sport project. Football Develoment Officer, James Hatch said, an important part of our school sport offer is elite pathways for talented children alongside our ‘achieving your target’ project for all school children regardless of ability.

EFL TRUST AND KINDER SPORT U11 KIDS CUP WINNERS - HILLBOROUGH JUNIOR SCHOOL The U11 Kids Cup is the biggest youth competition in the country, with every EFL Club entering teams via regional six-a-side competitions culminating in three finals across the EFL Play-Off weekends in May. All 72 Football League teams are split in to three divisions and two groups, North & South. We would like to congratulate Hillborough Junior School, who beat St Joseph’s Junior School 2-0 in our Bedfordshire Kids Cup Final here at Kenilworth Road during half-time at the Carlisle game. Over 20 schools took part in the tournament from :Luton and Bedfordshire. and everyone wishes the Hillborough team and teacher Mr Watts good luck in the regionals.

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HATTERS YOUTH MENTORING PROJECT @ ACE The Community Trust have teamed up with the (ACE) Avenue Centre for Education in Luton for the second year running to provide our seven-week intervention programmes for Luton High School boys and girls who are either at risk of, or are already, excluded from mainstream schooling and at risk of further being involved in anti-social behaviour.

Can we make a difference in six weeks? Well you’ll be surprised how anxious excluded boys and girls are to get back into mainstream education – maybe not at their previous school who may be reluctant to accept them again but at a new school offering a new opportunity – a new start in life. Football is one tool that can potentially make a difference and if you can show how disciplined professional football is with rules, codes of conduct and team discipline an essential part of everyday life for a professional player, then we hope that behaviour can be managed and influenced sufficiently to offer a better pathway for some of our younger community members.

WINNING WALKING FOOTBALLERS It was great to welcome back a true Luton legend, Kingsley Black, who presented our over 50s mens walking football teams with the Beds FA ‘Advanced’ and ‘Intermediate’ Cups following their recent successful exploits in the Luton and Bedfordshire tournament.Kingsley who pulled on the Hatters jersey over 120 times was watched by the over 50s countless times back in the day, so it was a perfect touch to the awards presentation which took place at half time at our game v Carlisle United last month.

EFL TRUST AND KINDER SPORT U13 GIRLS CUP WINNERS QUEENSBURY ACADEMY from Dunstable

The U13 Girls Cup is the biggest youth competition in the country, with every EFL Club entering teams via regional six-a-side competitions culminating in three finals across the EFL Play-Off weekends in May. We would like to congratulate Queensbury Academy, who beat Denbigh Girls School 3-0 in our Bedfordshire Kids Cup Final here at Kenilworth Road during half-time at the Accrington game. Good Luck in the regionals!

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Copyright 2017 © Luton Town FC Community Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Kenilworth Stadium, 1 Maple Road, LUTON LU4 8AW 01582 737568 | Charity No. 1123078 community@lutontown.co.uk Childline: 0800 11 11 Dedicated Historic Helpline: 0800 023 2642

lutontown.co.uk/club/community facebook.com/ltfc.communitytrust twitter.com/ltfc_community