Member Article

Liverpool FC legend teams up with Merseyside YouthBank

Former Liverpool FC defender Jamie Carragher’s 23 Foundation has provided Merseyside YouthBank with £5,000 to support 10 youth groups across the region.

Young people from YouthBank have been working since May to assess applications and award charitable grants to support local grass-roots projects led by other local young people in Merseyside.

The recently-retired centre-back was even on hand to congratulate each organisation at Cafe Sports England on Stanley Street. The 23 Foundation supports young budding sporting stars, youth clubs and community centres. It also plans to launch a Soccer School starting in September. Now Carragher’s partnership with Merseyside YouthBank has put the voices of young people at the centre of the 23 Foundation’s work.

After being introduced to Merseyside YouthBank by the Community Foundation for Merseyside, the 23 Foundation donated £5,000 to Merseyside YouthBank for the panel to distribute to 10 deserving applicants on its behalf.

The Community Foundation for Merseyside distributed single-page application forms to potential beneficiaries to keep the process simple.

Once the applications were in, the panel reviewed them all. Grants of £500 were given to Anfield Amateur Boxing Club, Litherland Youth and Community Centre, The Florence Institute (The Florrie), Hoylake Summer Play Scheme, Prescot Cables FC, Rotunda, Toxteth Tigers, Tuebrook Amateur Boxing Club, Wirral Schools FA and Woodstreet Junior FC.

Toxteth Tigers, a junior basketball club, said its grant would help the club run a free coaching camp for local youngsters in the summer, something it would otherwise have to charge for.

“The 23 Foundation funding has taken pressure off the club,” said chairman Peter Wentham. “It will pay for five days of camp through the summer. This means we don’t have to source funding from the young people attending. If we had to turn to the children for income, we would naturally exclude people from the area we live in.”

For Tuebrook ABC the funding has been a great boost. Securing grants has been difficult but 17-year-old coach Ellie Robinson has managed to secure money to create a female washroom. The 23 Foundation grant will go towards club refurbishment plans and sending coaches like Ellie on training courses.

“When you are working with young people you don’t feel old,” said club owner Jimmy Campbell, who has run Tuebrook ABC for 40 years. “Their energy and enthusiasm is infectious and I want to make sure this facility is here for them for years to come.”

Some of the grants will also support creative, artistic projects. Prescot Cables FC is working with youth club Young Tigers to create a graffiti art project at their Hope Street ground. Its grant will help fund a family fun day to unveil the artwork by local youngsters in September.

And at The Florrie the money will help purchase equipment to begin a photography course for young people to capture the changing face of the Dingle.

For Tameka Campbell, 13, the project is an important study of the history of the area.

“The Florrie is more than 100 years old now and many of our parents used to go there,” she said. “To learn more about photography and use it to explore how the building and the surrounding area has changed will be really interesting.”

For more information about Merseyside YouthBank contact Special Projects Senior Officer Michaela Bromilow on 0151 232 2431 or email michaela.bromilow@cfmerseyside.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dan Minchin .