Villa Park hosts 'Premier League Inspires' Challenge Celebration Event

Pupils from Heartlands Academy in Nechells, Birmingham joined forces with more than 1,750 young people from across England and Wales to help tackle environmental sustainability at their football clubs and in their communities, as part of this year’s Premier League Inspires Challenge.

The Challenge empowers participants to take on a social action project and make a difference to the world and communities around them. This season’s project tasked young people with considering what environmental sustainability challenges football clubs might face.

Year 8 and 9 pupils from Heartlands Academy came up with the concept of a staff cycling scheme, to encourage more staff from the football club and Foundation to make sustainable choices when considering how they commute to and from Villa Park.

Having come up with their environmental social action ideas, participants took part in regional celebration events at football clubs across the country, sharing details of their activity with teams of their peers representing 44 clubs from across the Premier League and the English Football League.

The first of these events was hosted at Villa Park on Tuesday 27th June, and saw fellow Inspires participants from seven other Club Community Organisations including Wolves, West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City in attendance.

The Challenge is one element of the Premier League Inspires programme, delivered through the Aston Villa Foundation, which run on a weekly basis to support 11–25-year-olds who are at risk of not reaching their potential as they move through the education system and early adulthood, currently engages with over 100 children in five schools in Birmingham alone.

Hear more from participant Nathaniel about the impact the programme has had on him…