As part of our tour, young Saturday Night Lights footballers from SportCares Foundation, a prosocial outfit that works to empower vulnerable communities in Singapore through sports, joined in a number of activities throughout the week.
To kick things off, 50 young people and their coaches joined us at our fan party alongside Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac and new signings Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Bernd Leno on Wednesday.
On Friday, a group of 10 youngsters were invited to a special coaching clinic at our training base at the Singapore American School with a number of players including Emile Smith Rowe. The event was followed by a ride on the players’ team bus to visit the Esplanade where we launched our third kit. Then girls from the project joined us for open training afterwards at Singapore National Stadium.
On Saturday, Ray Parlour joined one of the programme’s own soccer sessions, accompanied by Arsenal Soccer School coach, Simon McManus, to deliver an interactive football session, playing the Arsenal way. The youngsters rounded off the week by coming along to our match against Paris Saint-Germain at the National Stadium that evening.
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: “The work of SportCares reflects what we have been doing in our local community in north London for more than 30 years. Arsenal has a long tradition of giving back to its community and, as Arsenal’s global community grows, so does our potential to reach even more young people around the world. Thank you to SportCares for showing us their work and being part of our tour this year.”
Kerk Kim Por, SportCares Foundation director, said: “SportCares is extremely grateful to Arsenal Football Club and Arsenal Foundation for the invaluable opportunities afforded to our youth this week. We are confident that the positive experiences that they had collected through the clinics and meet and greet sessions would instil a greater sense of confidence and ambition in many of them, teaching our boys skills and inner strength to succeed on and off the playing field.”
SportCares is at the heart of a growing national movement to use sport for social good. The organisation has a variety of programmes and projects that have touched the lives of more than 21,000. While each programme has its unique characteristics, SportCares’ mission has never varied: to empower vulnerable communities, by providing opportunities for social inclusion and community bridging through sport.
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