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ferociously bright schoolgirl was at the podium, talking about how much confidence she gained from attending a summer camp last year as part of the Government’s National Citizen Service. Others had gained too. All the students at the summer camp had helped with community projects. The young lady talking helped renovate parts of a local football stadium. She was speaking in one of the rooms at Carrow Park, the facility across the car park from the stadium here at Norwich City. She was helping to tell head-teachers about the wonderful opportunities the Citizen Service provides. The Service is organised in Norfolk by the Norwich City Community Sports Foundation – the stand-alone, independent charity that uses the Canaries “brand” to do so much good. Outside while she spoke, kids were playing cricket on the plastic football pitch: youngsters who need significant amount of care and attention because of physical and learning disabilities. The Community Sports Foundation looks after these children every Saturday, to provide respite for their families. When there’s a Championship match on, the day’s care includes taking the youngsters to the game. They will be here today. One of the most patient Foundation staff members providing the care that day – as she does every Saturday – was a petite young woman who became involved with Norwich as a nine-year-old when she began training and playing football at the girls’ Centre of Excellence. So, as I took mental stock of what was going on inside and outside at Carrow Park on that particular Saturday lunchtime, I thought about that word “community”. The CSF works in communities in Norwich and throughout Norfolk. But it is a community itself – a collection of committed, caring individuals and the folk they work with, involved in a huge range of separate but linked activities. It is a
MICK’S
Z O N E D aily Express Columnist Mick Dennis provides us with his views on all things football.
community where a young girl footballer can grow up and get a job helping disabled kids – and where the children who need care can go to a football match as part of their Saturday away from home. All these linked activities, all the tie-ins with the football club … they add up to something much bigger and better than the sum of the different bits. And you cannot estimate that “added value”, because it is priceless. Of course, you can measure some outcomes and calculate some values. It is impressive when you do, because the Norwich City CSF achieved some huge numbers in 2014. Turnover was up by £1 million to £3.4m. More than 30,000 people took part in programmes run by the CSF. Then you can drill down a bit into the numbers to reach some details. So, for instance, the CSF took over the PE provision at 72. And it wasn’t just PE the CSF took to schools. Using footballthemed teaching methods, CSF staff worked at failing schools to get kids interested in reading and sums. Or you could look elsewhere in the figures, and note that anti-social behaviour and youth crime is measurably down in areas where the CSF put on sports sessions in the streets and open spaces. Crimes are down and astonishing 65 per cent in some of those areas. But, no matter what detail you discover, what numbers you scrutinise, you can’t really put a price on the impact that is being made by young men and women, wearing a Canary logo working in Norwich and Norfolk. The secret, I think, is to consider individuals rather than collective numbers – because every one of the 30,000-plus people whose lives were touched by the CSF in 2014 is an individual. So, think about that young lady Citizen, marching into life with a confidence and volunteering ethic nurtured by the CSF. Or think about the other young lady, who started playing football at CSF sessions when she was nine and now gently steers some challenging and challenged youngsters through games of cricket. Priceless.
The Community Sports Foundation team – the work they do across the county is priceless
Norwich City v Derby County on the ball city 57