The summit hosted young people from club foundations from across the English Premier and Football League, who came together to talk about their project experiences, youth violence and No Room For Racism activity.
Six CITC participants joined more than 700 youngsters from Premier League Kicks and Premier League Inspires programmes to engage in conversations on these issues, take part in several challenges and tasks, as well as amplify the positive activity and social action they’ve been doing in their communities.
The summit took place digitally, with participants joining remotely from all over the UK to the virtual one-day event, which was hosted by the presenter Elz at the League’s headquarters. CITC participants joined remotely from the stadium, where they undertook activities from a hospitality box, under the guidance of CITC Community Outreach Officer, Laura Wilson.
Laura said,
The point of the Youth Summit is to bring young people from the Premier League Kicks Programme and the Premier League Inspires Programme together across the country and really look into and discuss the themes that have been chosen.
So this year, it was Community Safety, No Room for Racism, and their experiences on the Premier League Charitable Fund Programmes that they have been involved with.
It has been great working with our guys across the season and into the summer on the Inspires and Kicks programmes, and really great to hear them talking and discussing their experiences and what they’ve learnt, and to see them representing CITC at an event like this.
The young people had been asked by their clubs to talk about at least one of three themes: their experience on the programmes; community safety and youth violence; No Room For Racism.
They also took part in live challenges related to Premier League values, such as taking a photo that reflected “ambition” - working hard and never giving up on your goals - or how to be “connected”, such as working as a team to move a football around their group without touching the floor.
Prior to the Youth Summit itself, the CITC volunteers also took part in a community coaching session on the Community pitch at the City Football Academy (CFA), developing their community coaching skills and experiences further.
The Youth Summit is just the start of the work that the Premier League and the Premier League Charitable Fund aim to do to engage more youth voice in their work and programmes.
For further information on the CITC Kicks or Inspires Programmes, please contact Laura directly at laura.wilson@cityfootball.com
