The highlights of 2023 at Arsenal in the Community

It has been another busy 12 months for Arsenal in the Community, with new projects, special guests, events at The Arsenal Hub and thousands of local people benefitting from our work. And as ever, helping our participants to feel a sense of belonging in their community remains at the heart of what we do. 

Our projects cover three main themes – Social Inclusion, Education & Employment and Sport & Health – and we have tried to cover them here as we pick one highlight from each of the last 12 months. It’s impossible to showcase the breadth of our work in a dozen photographs, but it does give a taste of what we do.

Our support for local people will remain unwavering. “The challenges our communities face continue to drive our response and our support is as important as ever,” says Freddie Hudson, head of Arsenal in the Community. 

Our Shape Up pilot programme finished in December 2022, and the results were so positive that we immediately launched the project in early 2023. Shape Up is our weight-management programme for men, a 12-week behaviour-change course that provides education around nutrition in a non-judgemental, sustainable and engaging way – as you can see above. 

Early in 2023 we launched Gunners For Change, a groundbreaking project to help and inspire Arsenal Academy players to become more involved in the club’s community projects. The initiative is overseen by the department’s Club Link Officer, whose role is to coordinate the Academy players’ engagement with Arsenal in the Community programmes. Beyond this, Gunners For Change also shines a light on the social action by our own workforce – including the senior men’s and women’s players – and supporters, as well as the participants in our Arsenal in the Community projects.

It was quite a year for Lotte Wubben-Moy, who as well as winning the Continental Cup, reaching the Champions League semi-finals and establishing herself at the heart of the Arsenal defence also found time to set up Time To Explore, a programme that gives girls a chance to explore how to express themselves through football, art, and writing in a non-traditional way.

Arsenal in the Community projects span the generations. Here, our Sports Study students deliver a gadget workshop to Islington residents to support their use of technology. 

On Tuesday, May 31, more than 800 people descended on Emirates Stadium for our annual #PlayOnThePitch event, which gives our participants the amazing opportunity to play on the hallowed turf where their heroes ply their trade. Attendees, whose ages ranged from eight to 65, played a mixture of matches and challenges, as well as engaging in educational workshops throughout the day, and they were joined by Arsenal Academy players Amario Cozier-Duberry, Noah Cooper, Josh Nichols and Hubert Graczyk. And Gunnersaurus, of course.

We were incredibly proud when Reiss Nelson and Kaylan Marckese were named as the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Community Champions for the 2022/23 season in celebration of their work off the pitch throughout local areas. The PFA Community Champion awards recognise players who have gone above and beyond for their club’s local communities, with Reiss and Kaylan honoured in June for their commitment to our work in Islington and beyond.

A group of Islington care experienced young people enjoyed a huge surprise at The Arsenal Hub in July as singer-songwriter and Gooner Mabel paid them a visit to encourage them to follow their dreams. The Brit award-winning musician stunned the group when she made a surprise arrival during an Arsenal Kickoff session - a home learning and football after-school club provided by Arsenal in the Community. She held a Q&A session before taking part in a game of football, joining them for an end-of-term feast and, to top off a memorable afternoon, giving each of them an Arsenal away shirt.

Congratulations to our BTEC sports students, who not only completed their studies but achieved our best set of results to date in August. Our range of sports development and coaching courses offer people young and old to take their first steps into careers in these fields – and these graduates are well on their way. 

Talking of students, in September we welcomed a new intake to the Coach Development Programme, our comprehensive two-year coach education course. Students gain experience by leading and supporting sessions across our range of community projects, gain qualifications and can even work abroad, notably supporting The Arsenal Foundation’s Coaching for Life programme in Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan or at placements across the United States. 

Arsenal in the Community played host to Kicks Not Flicks, an annual football tournament that raises money for The Ben Kinsella Trust – one of our No More Red charity partners – to help combat knife crime. This annual event, which started in 2017 with the aim of raising funds for Grenfell residents, has shifted its focus to addressing knife crime issues and has attracted a variety of teams from different parts of London.

Arsenal’s commitment to inclusivity was on display during November’s Anti-Bullying Week, when even the youngest members of the club rallied behind the cause. In keeping with tradition, our Under-9s and Under-10s sported quirky and mismatched socks during their training sessions and matches to celebrate individuality and self-expression. We also invited children from St Mark’s Primary School to join us at The Arsenal Hub, where they took part in anti-bullying workshops and discussed the significance of kindness and understanding.

Our Double Club programme celebrated its 25th birthday – and in that time our coaches and players have helped children in the classroom and on the football pitch. Since the historic League and FA Cup double in 1998, the Double Club has played a pivotal role in supporting local primary school children via a unique blend of education and football. More than 10,000 young people have taken part since the project’s inception – and it’s still going strong today.