Manchester, UK - Manchester City Football Club (Manchester City) and Etihad Airways have joined forces to develop youth leaders around the world, who are tackling social issues in their communities by delivering youth-led football projects.
- As part of Manchester City’s global
community work, more than 50 young leaders from around the world, including two
from Abu Dhabi, travelled to City Football Academy, Manchester
- Supported by Etihad Airways, leaders took
part in a week-long summit offering cutting edge training in community football
leadership
- Leaders are delivering community football
projects to tackle social issues in their cities around the world
- Watch the Young Leaders Summit wrap up video: https://youtu.be/9g3bmVvsrAw
Returning for its third year, the
Cityzens Giving Young Leaders Summit welcomed more than 50 young leaders from
Manchester City’s global network of community projects to City’s state of the
art training facility, City Football Academy. The week-long programme saw
leaders from Manchester and 11 cities in India, Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Australia
and The Americas, take part in a variety of on and off-the-pitch workshops to
develop and enhance their community football leadership and coaching skills.
As the Official Summit Partner, Etihad
Airways connected young people from the Emirates Foundation in Abu Dhabi with
their peers by flying them over to Manchester. The young leaders are working in
community football in Abu Dhabi and used this as an opportunity to develop
their knowledge and skill base.
The Abu Dhabi representatives joined other leaders from projects in Beijing,
Bandung (Indonesia), Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, Cape Town, Kuala Lumpur,
Barranquilla (Colombia), Kolkata and São Paulo.
The delegates, aged between 16 and 30,
are currently delivering community football projects addressing a range of issues affecting young
people, such as gang crime, substance abuse, HIV
/ AIDS, obesity and creating safe spaces for children to play football. For several delegates, this was their
first experience of international travel.
Omar Berrada,
Chief Operating Officer for Manchester City FC commented:
“We are extremely proud that our community footprint continues to grow
and develop every year – both locally where City Football Group has Clubs in
Manchester, New York City and Melbourne but also globally. This summit
epitomises the power of football to change lives and we’re delighted to be
working with Etihad Airways to connect the young leaders together.
“We’ve brought young leaders from different backgrounds, speaking a
number of different languages and yet they all share a common goal – to make a
difference through football. Using our community philosophy and years of
experience, we are equipping the young leaders with the tools they need to go
out and deliver life changing projects in their communities.”
Patrick
Pierce, Vice President, Marketing Partnerships at Etihad Airways, said:
“Etihad Airways has a duty to contribute to communities around the
world. By flying delegates into Manchester for the Cityzens Giving Young Leader
Summit, we are honoured to connect young people who seek to address complex
social issues in their home cities. This is another powerful example of using
the medium of football to tackle a wide range of social problems and give young
people a brighter future.”
The week also saw
leadership master classes from Club experts, including members from City
Football Group’s Leadership Team, as well as more practical sessions on event
and project management, safeguarding and monitoring and evaluation.
On the final day, leaders put all their newly found knowledge and
experience into practice as they organised and delivered two highly successful
football festivals for 240 local school children and Manchester City fans.
Watch
the Young Leaders Summit wrap up video, here: https://youtu.be/9g3bmVvsrAw and view images: https://we.tl/jzHuCsvnU2
Visit www.mancity.com/community for further details on its local and global community work.