Arsenal Football Club has always understood the power it has to bring people together and make a difference in the community.
Our long-standing and pioneering approach to our social commitments reached a new level in May 2012, when The Arsenal Foundation was launched as a grant-giving organisation with the mission to help young people fulfil their potential. Although an independent charity, The Arsenal Foundation is – as the name suggests – embedded within the club, based at Emirates Stadium and immersed in the local community. The Arsenal Foundation works closely with Arsenal in the Community, our delivery team, which is a department of the football club based at The Arsenal Hub next to Emirates Stadium. This gives us a unique approach to our social commitments unlike any other Premier or Football League club.
The model means we have a workforce that delivers on some of the most challenging societal issues while financially supporting wider social need through-grant giving from The Arsenal Foundation. Both have a local focus on three London boroughs: Islington, where most of the provision is directed, Hackney and Camden. But our work resonates far beyond north London.
Our partners
Save the Children, Willow Foundation and Islington Giving are all official partners of the Foundation, with a great number of other projects also benefitting from grants and support.
Save the Children is our global charity partner, and we have combined our experience in running community programmes in north London with Save the Children’s expertise in a humanitarian context to co-design and co-deliver an innovative project called Coaching for Life.
This programme, which was launched in 2018, aims to impact the physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of children who have been affected by conflict. The programme runs in Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, which is home to almost 80,000 Syrian refugees, half of whom are children. Independent research has proven that a sense of belonging, safe spaces and the presence of trusted adults have all been contributing factors in impacting the mental health of participants, in encouraging a 50/50 gender split in coaches and participants and in raising participants’ self-confidence and hope for the future.
With Save the Children, we have also built pitches in Iraq and in camps for displaced children fleeing war in Indonesia and Somalia. These give children around the world a safe place to play and to be children again.
Locally, The Arsenal Foundation combines funding with Islington Giving, which is a grant-giving charity in Arsenal’s host borough, Islington, and also awards grants from a small grants scheme called the Gunners Fund to local initiatives and community groups.
This level of support can only be achieved with the support and generosity of The Arsenal family. Each year, players, staff and supporters get involved in a range of activities to raise awareness and funds for the Foundation.
Into the future
Through our work locally and our groundbreaking partnership with Save the Children, Arsenal is showing the world just how football can make a difference. We have combined the knowledge we’ve built over decades in our local community with Save the Children’s expertise to support some of the hardest to reach young people in the world. We have an immense opportunity to continue to support these communities, whether they’re in north London or in Za’atari refugee camp.
We cannot do it alone. But with fantastic backing from generous donors, supporters and Arsenal players past and present, The Arsenal Foundation continues to go from strength to strength.
Read more about Coaching for Life here.
Read more about our work in north London here.
Donate here.
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