Leeds United Foundation were delighted to join the Kiyan Prince Foundation in delivering a ‘Positive Choices’ session at Corpus Christi College in Leeds, this week.

The ‘Positive Choices’ session aims to empower students to make positive decisions when they are faced with real-life choices, helping them to further understand the impact that their actions can have on everyone around them, and the consequences from making them.

Ahead of Leeds United taking on Queens Park Rangers in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday, Dr. Mark Prince OBE was invited to the school to deliver a powerful talk on knife crime, after tragically losing his son Kiyan Prince in 2006, at the age of just 15-years-old.

Kiyan was in the QPR Academy at the time of his murder and his father, Mark, founded the Foundation in his name and has helped to use the power of football to spread positivity and love, to help change the mindset of young people who need help.

Alongside the work of the Leeds United Foundation, Mark travelled from London to Leeds, talking and capturing the full attention in the room and saw over 180 pupils from Year 8 at Corpus Christi listen, interact, and ask questions throughout their assembly.

Mark left some key messages on the minds of the young students, most notably telling them that ‘all their thoughts are seeds, and seeds grow, so be sure to make sure your thoughts are positive ones’.

He finished the assembly by sending a message of love one another, to make positive choices.

Speaking after the event, Dr. Prince told LUTV why he wanted to come and deliver the talk within the local Leeds community, partnering the two Foundations together to make change.

“I've come to share that powerful message and to let children know that hurting people, hurts people,” he began.

“That's how all of this knife crime really begins, because people are hurting so they resort to taking up knives as a way of dealing with some of the conflicts that are going on in their mind. And then that ends up hurting other people. So I want them to focus on understanding and valuing their life, making the right choices.

“Different football clubs might be rivals when it comes to winning a game, but when it comes to achieving the goal of no knives on the streets and less violence on our streets, then everyone's united. That's like one football team and there isn’t anyone against each other in that concept. So I think this is a wonderful platform to use to bring a powerful message together.”

Frances Milner, CEO of the Leeds United Foundation was in attendance on the day and was inspired by the talk, which was delivered as part of the Foundation’s Positive Choices Programme.

She said: “The Leeds United Foundation were delighted to be partnering with the Kiyan Prince Foundation at Corpus Christi College today and we’ve heard an incredibly powerful talk by Dr. Mark Prince, Kiyan's father.

“It’s been a really thought-provoking morning, Mark’s talk brought to life the messages of the Leeds United Foundations Positive Choices Programme. This is a programme that we run with schools across the region and seeks to inform, educate and empower students to make positive life decisions, when they're facing tough choices in their lives.”

Hosting the assembly on the day was Amy Thompson, who is the Director of Personal Development at Corpus Christi.

“We've been really blessed because we had Mark sharing his life story with our children and also telling us about the loss of his son. It was a very, very moving input, the children were so inspired by him and they were really engaged in his session.

“He talked about how the choices they make are going to impact on their futures and that they can be who they want to be. Our students have been coming up to me all day, and will now for the next few weeks, talking to me about ‘the seed’ and how they're growing, because they are really inspired.

“We've been working with ‘Positive Choices’ and the Leeds United Foundation for about four years now, they’ve got a selection of speakers like Mark that come in and share their stories to make a difference to impact positively with our children. So we’d like to say a huge thank you to the team.”

Dr. Mark Prince OBE will be a guest at the game against Queens Park Rangers on Saturday. We ask for both sets of supporters to welcome him out onto the pitch at half-time, where the 'Positive Choices' video will be played on our big screen.