The Leeds United Foundation hosted a special Premier League Kicks event at Corpus Christi Catholic College recently focused around youngsters making positive choices.
First-team star Adam Forshaw was the guest of honour during the event where coaches from the club’s official charity helped to deliver a number of educational sessions along with other individuals and organisations.
Those in attendance included Phil Pearce and his colleagues at Life Experiences who presented on the Spoken Word, medical students from Street Doctors who spoke about how to identify and deal with injuries, Tony Gibson who works for Space and the Bridge Project who gave a fantastic insight into choices he’d made when he was younger and how they seriously affected his future and PC Mally Bolland, the Safer Schools Officer at the local school, who gave a presentation on knife crime in conjunction with staff from Wetherby Young Offenders Institute and officers from West Yorkshire Police.
Leeds United midfielder Forshaw was on hand to meet with some of the children in Year 8 that had taken part in the sessions, finding out what they’d learned during the day and discussing the impact of making positive and negative choices. The 28-year-old also spent time handing out certificates to eight pupils that had excelled during the day, congratulating them and inviting them to attend a match at Elland Road.
Mr S Mort, Principal at Corpus Christi Catholic College, said: “Growing up as a young person today is an increasingly challenging time, there’s a lot of peer pressure out there so one of the great things about today was students realising that it’s important they make informed decisions.
“We’re preparing them for future life and life outside of school, and so it’s important that we prepare them for some of the challenges they might face. It is crucial they think about some of the choices they will have to make and it’s about us supporting them with making those choices positive ones.”
Alan Scorfield, CEO at the Leeds United Foundation, added: “Today was all about trying to encourage young people to make the right choices by offering them support, advice and guidance. Those pupils who showed a real aptitude for what we were trying to do have been invited to the Middlesbrough game to enjoy a special day out.
“Having a first-team player here today and showing a real interest in what the kids were doing was so important, that’s the way the club ties to its community. It’s been such a pleasure to be involved in this event organised by the Safeguarding Lead at the school Lorraine Yates, and if we can continue to keep the club right at the centre of people making positive choices then that’s brilliant.”
For more information on the Premier League Kicks programme delivered by the Leeds United Foundation, please email [email protected].
