Founded in 1976 by the Prince of Wales, The Prince’s Trust endeavours to change the lives of young people, and over the past forty years the charity has supported 825,000 children and teenagers across its many programmes.
When it comes to football, the charity set up The Prince’s Trust Football Initiative back in 1997 and has helped around 25,000 sport loving kids ever since. Funded by the Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association, and with the involvement of forty Premier League and Football League clubs, the initiative helps young people develop not only their skills and passion for football, but their wider skills such as confidence, motivation and social integration.
The programmes run by the many football clubs involved, Palace included, support young people aged 13-25 in gaining new qualifications, which are key to their education as well as for future employment.
One person whose life changed for the better thanks to The Prince’s Trust Football Initiative is Crystal Palace Foundation coach Emmanuel Nwanze. Emmanuel grew up in Tottenham, North London, and says lots of his friends were in and out of prison. And though he had his own issues to deal with as a teenager, Emmanuel decided not to follow the same path.
At a Prince’s Trust Football Initiative event last year, Emmanuel said;
“The moment I decided to change was when I was fourteen. One of the boys I was hanging around with just came of prison and said, “Emmanuel you are better than this”. That’s when I said to myself, “I am not part of this life, I want to be doing something else.”
A keen footballer, Emmanuel focused on his game and later became a player at Luton Town. However, whilst on loan to Welling United in 2014 he tore a tendon in his knee, putting him out of action. Distraught but not undetermined, Emmanuel enrolled in Crystal Palace’s Get Started With Football programme, where participants are taught coaching, teamwork and motivational skills.
“The course was taken by Crystal Palace Foundation coaches and at the end of it, I was asked if I wanted to volunteer for them. When I took my first session, everything changed. I loved it. It made me feel good about myself when the kids were taking in what I told them. When I was young I didn’t have anyone to push me and for me to help someone else who was in my situation was amazing. I am so grateful I took part in the Football Initiative, it has changed my life.”
Emmanuel now works with the coaching team permanently.
The Football Initiative is just one of many programmes The Prince’s Trust run with the aim of helping young children. For information on the other great work that they do, visit the website.
