West Ham United is raising awareness and support for the Moore Family Foundation at Sunday’s Premier League fixture with Leeds United…
The Moore Family Foundation (MFF) was established by Roberta Moore, daughter of the late West Ham United and England World Cup winning legend Bobby Moore, in 2014.
In partnership with the West Ham United Foundation (WHUF), MFF was devised to engage with vulnerable young people in East London and Essex and provide them with an educational, mentoring and pupil engagement provision. This was underpinned by the desire to inspire young people with the six central values of Bobby; courtesy, generosity, hard work, humbleness, respect for others and self-discipline.
“I want dad’s legacy to continue and what we built into the programme was the core values which I very much recognised and I think everyone else does, in dad. So, we’re trying to put those messages across to the children we work with,” said Roberta at the opening of the Bobby Moore Stand at London Stadium.
In the seven years since MFF’s creation, the programme has delivered over £600,000 of support and worked with 75 schools and more than 15,000 primary and secondary school students across East London and Essex.
Through a key partnership with London East Alternative Provision (LEAP), staff from the alternative provision and Learning Mentors from WHUF have focused on reducing the instances of young people being not in education, employment or training (NEET) after 16 years of age and having clear education and employment pathways through the Foundation or other partner organisations. Students who attend Alternative Education Provisions are usually the most likely to not be in education, employment of training after 16 years of age and exit secondary education without qualifications.
Furthermore, due to the impact of the pandemic there has been a sharp increase in the numbers being seen. Young people have been dealing with traumatic experiences, social isolation and loss of security and routine; making MFF more vital than ever before.
For the 2021/22 academic year MFF continues to be focused towards vulnerable and personally challenged groups of young people, who have been expelled from mainstream school and have become disengaged with education.
The mentoring programme has been engaging with 14 to 18 year olds, reaching even more young people across both Key Stage 4 and Post 16 support provision. This has included the young people completing a Sports Leader Level 1 Award, FA Talent I.D Level 1 and FA Playmakers Course as well as gaining volunteering experience. Within these courses the young people develop their organisational, communication and confidence skills whilst gaining a qualification.
Additionally, Year 12 students have benefitted from volunteering opportunities through West Ham United Foundation’s Premier League Kicks programme.
This has given them the opportunity to utilise the information and skills learnt on their Sports Leaders Level 1 and FA Playmakers course on a weekly basis and receive mentoring support from Foundation coaches. Moreover, in preparation for employment, the Year 12 students complete an Employability booklet to progress their personal and soft skills in preparation for accessing employment opportunities.
The Foundation’s Education and Employability Officer, Ade Omideyi, who leads on the mentoring and support delivery for the young people, said: “This programme is crucial to ensure that the young people we engage with receive the support, mentoring and inspirational experiences to make positives steps towards their future aspirations. The growing strength of our partnership with LEAP over the last four years has enabled us to support even more young people this year who are achieving in considerable ways.”
Discussing the impact of the programme, Afrooz Hannan, Assistant Headteacher of LEAP said: “The Moore Family Foundation Mentoring Programme managed to engage our most disaffected and challenging students. This resulted in a shift in their mindset developing more aspirational goals.”
Considering the susceptibility of these vulnerable young people to be involved in gang culture, Hannan went on to sum up the significant impact of the programme: “You are not just changing lives, you are saving lives.”
Moving forward, the charity is specifically focused on supporting even more young people who attend alternative provisions in the other East London boroughs including Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, and Redbridge.
With the challenge of the pandemic negatively affecting educational development and behavioural incidences for some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people, referrals of young people to alternative provisions have been on the rise and through the Moore Family Foundation Mentoring Programme we aim to positively impact the
https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2022/january/16-january/moore-family-foundation
