A YEAR IN THE LIFE: ARSENAL IN THE COMMUNITY DURING
2007
JANUARY: ARSENAL DOUBLE CLUB GOES NATIONWIDE
Arsenal Double Club is our award- winning literacy, numeracy and
football programme for schools. In 2006 Double Clubs were
established in secondary schools close to Portsmouth, Ipswich Town,
West Bromwich Albion, Oldham Athletic and Middlesbrough Football
Clubs as well as Northampton Cricket and Rugby Union Clubs and
Leeds Hunslet Hawks Rugby League Club. Last year, we helped set up
Double Clubs at Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Norwich City, Southend
United and Watford Football Clubs as well as at Leicester Tigers
Rugby Union Club and Surrey County Cricket Club at The Oval. For
more information on Arsenal Double Club contact
scohen@arsenal.co.uk.
FEBRUARY: THE WORLD ON OUR DOORSTEP - NATIONALITY WEEK
This was a weeklong project for Islington schools celebrating the
diverse cultures and nationalities that make up our local borough.
Community staff delivered assemblies and teaching resources in
schools that highlighted and compared the changing face of Arsenal
Football Club and the local community over the last 15 years.
Pupils were also asked to design their own player cards and the
winners were invited to Emirates Stadium for a special
presentation.
MARCH: ARSENAL ANNOUNCE KICKZ SESSIONS IN ARCHWAYr
Arsenal in the Community's coaches hold football sessions four
nights a week as part of the national programme at Elthorne Park.
The sessions are free, aimed at local young people. We have also
teamed up with Islington Boxing Club in Archway to add boxing to
the programme. Arsenal Kickz has since expanded to deliver sessions
at Rosemary Gardens in Islington and Cantelowes Park and
Queen's Crescent in Camden. For more information about all
Arsenal Kickz football sessions, call the Community Department on
020 7704 4140.
APRIL: EASTER SOCCER SCHOOL PLAYER VISITS
Partners & Sponsors Pictured are the lucky children on Easter
Soccer Schools who met some of the first team. For more information
about Soccer Schools in and around north London during the next
half term and during the Easter holidays please keep checking
www.arsenal.com/soccerschools or call 020 7704 4140 for credit card
bookings. Application forms for the residential soccer school from
April 7 -9, 2008 are also available online.
MAY ARSENAL DOUBLE CLUB LAUNCHES LANGUAGES MODULES
Arsène Wenger was the guest of honour at the launch of our French,
German and Spanish modules for secondary schools. Also in
attendance were the ambassadors to the UK of the three countries as
well as many language teachers and school children who had taken
part in the project. Our language resources for schools include a
DVD of Gael Clichy, Jens Lehmann and Cesc Fabregas speaking in
their native languages at a basic level. We have since added a
German module for primary schools.
For more information about our Double Club modern foreign languages
modules, contact ssingh@arsenal.co.uk
JUNE: ARSENAL HOST DEAF FOOTBALL FESTIVAL
he National Deaf Children's Society held a football festival at
the Academy Training Ground at Hale End. The Department and St.
John's Deaf Football Club will hold regular sessions on Sunday
mornings from January 13, 2008 for deaf and hard of hearing
children at Rosemary Gardens. The Department will also continue to
run monthly Mencap and visually-impaired sessions at the Sobell
Centre on Sunday mornings.
For more information on all our disability football sessions, email
jmonteith@arsenal.co.uk
JULY: SING ARSENAL AND INDOOR BOWLS
Nearly 100 local Islington people were invited to an event under
the famous Arsenal clock on the podium as part of the Sing London
festival. The local community were led by broadcaster Tom Watt
through a medley of Arsenal songs both old and new. Indoor bowls
for the local community, which used to take place in the JVC Sports
Hall at Highbury, made a return to Emirates Stadium during the
Summer in Club Level!
AUGUST: SUMMER SOCCER SCHOOLS AND RESIDENTIAL SOCCER SCHOOLS
Daily Soccer Schools took place at Southbury Leisure Centre (120
children over two courses), Martins School in East Finchley (76
children), Haverstock School in Camden (55 children) and Aldenham
School in Elstree (106 children). There were also three residential
soccer schools, two at Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire and
another at Sparsholt College in Winchester. Over 350 children
attended the residential courses alone! Overall, over 700 children
attended our soccer schools during the six week holiday period!
For more information about residential Soccer Schools next summer
please see www.arsenal.com/soccerschools. You can download an
application form from the website or call the Community Department
on 020 7704 4140 for more information and credit card bookings.
SEPTEMBER: ARSENAL TRAINEE PROGRAMMES START
We have three trainee programmes: The Gap Year programme, The City
and Westminster College two- year course and the Springboard
Islington traineeship. All programmes offer the chance to get
coaching badges, other qualifications and experience coaching in
schools and clubs in north London. For more information on the
various schemes, call the Community Department on 020 7704 4140
OCTOBER: RESIDENTIAL SOCCER SCHOOLS OCTOBER:BLACK HISTORY MONTH
AND THE "KICK IT OUT" WEEK OF ACTION
The Community Department produced a DVD for 40 Islington schools
featuring Brendon Batson and Paul Davis speaking about their time
in the game for Black History Month 2007. For the Kick Racism out
of Football week, Arsenal Positive Futures (the Club's estates
programme) and our partners, Access2Sport, held a tournament for
local teams as part of the week of action. The tournament at Market
Road was for local teams and was sponsored by Homes for Islington.
An Arsenal Positive Futures team also took part in a tournament at
Faversham Town in Kent which we won!
NOVEMBER: INTERNATIONAL SOCCER SCHOOLS START IN FRANCE
Arsenal Soccer Schools have partner organisations in 15 countries
worldwide and 15 regions of the United Kingdom. In November, we
launched our latest Soccer School in Toulouse, France. If you live
in another part of the UK or overseas, visit
www.arsenal.com/soccerschools to find out about Arsenal Soccer
School partners near you.
DECEMBER: ARSENE WENGER OPENS NEW ASTROTURF IN ISLINGTON
The Boss opened a new artificial pitch facility at Rosemary Gardens
as part of the Barclays Spaces for Sport initiative. The new pitch
is used by a number of the Community Department's schemes and
is located two miles from Emirates Stadium near Essex Road, N1. We
will be running a Soccer School at Rosemary Gardens in the new year
and for more information call the Community Department on 020 7704
4140.
