Hampshire Football Association supports Southampton care leavers and unaccompanied asylum seeking young people

Corporate Social Responsibility team generously donate football equipment

Hampshire Football Association’s (HFA) Corporate Social Responsibility team (CSR) has supported Southampton City Council’s monthly asylum seeker and care leavers’ football sessions by donating footballs and boots.

The council delivers monthly unaccompanied asylum seeker and care leavers’ football sessions at Cantell School for children aged 16 plus. The set-up required football boots and size four footballs to support the session which sees up to 20 children turn up for the monthly, organised kickabout, although numbers are increasing.

HFA’s CSR team was able to step in and support through the generous donations that have been kindly gifted to the association by its member clubs in the county. Our ‘Footballs for Schools’ campaign has seen an increase in football donations. Additionally, the partnership with Howden Insurance Alton has also seen boots replenished to meet the demands of community sport provision, through the company’s own donations scheme.

This collaborative piece of work supports the environmental and community support pillars of HFA’s CSR strategy, and we are pleased to give greater support by providing equipment and assistance. There are discussions being held with the council to deliver an annual tournament for asylum seeker set-ups across the county. This would take recreational sessions and turn them into a fun and competitive tournament that is backed by the association.

Discussing the partnership with the council, HFA’s CSR Chair, Cai Povey says: “We are incredibly proud to support Southampton City Council’s asylum seeker football sessions as part of our ongoing CSR commitments. It’s inspiring to see how a simple game of football can create connection, inclusion and joy for young people, many of which have faced barriers to participation. We’re looking forward to building on this work together and are grateful for the support from partners like Howden Insurance Alton who are helping ensure sport is accessible for everyone by providing footwear”.

Stuart Webb, Head of Quality, Improvement and Commissioning for Southampton Children and Learning Service said: “We are delighted that Hampshire FA are supporting our football sessions. The partnership will help us involve more young people and we are particularly pleased that we can now run tournaments, which has been our aspiration for a while”.

Find out more about HFA’s CSR work.