The Mohn Westlake Foundation is working with the London Community Foundation to support Football Beyond Borders, a project which uses football to engage young people from low income backgrounds with their education, particularly when they are at risk of exclusion.
London Community Foundation specialises in supporting community-based organisations focused on helping disadvantaged Londoners by raising funds from institutions and individuals to invest in local charities and social enterprises.
Football Beyond Borders promotes football as the most powerful way to inspire young people to achieve their goals and make their voices heard, by giving them the opportunity to develop the skills, attitude and character to succeed in all aspects of their lives. Football Beyond Borders specifically targets young people at risk of school exclusions. It does this through providing long-term interventions in schools, as well as evening and holiday programmes, to re-engage students with their education and help them develop the social and emotional competencies necessary to transition into adulthood.
The Mohn Westlake Foundation’s grant will enable Football Beyond Borders to deliver additional programmes in school holidays and improve the efficiency of its core programmes by creating a Youth Hub. On top of football coaching, the hub will deliver programmes in career development, digital and media skills, social action campaigning, finding paths away from gang activity and overcoming `learning-lag’. This will ultimately prevent more school exclusions and reduce the numbers of young people facing social exclusion in disadvantaged areas of London.
The Mohn Westlake Youth Achievement Fund, managed by London Community Foundation, will provide multi-year grants to other small organisations working to improve skills and opportunities for young people under the age of 24. The Mohn Westlake Foundation will also be working in partnership with other donors to support organisations tackling youth violence as part of London Community Foundation’s Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund, Save London Lives initiative.
To learn more about this project, please visit the grantees website:
www.londoncf.org.uk
footballbeyondborders.org