In 1995, Nelson Mandela famously said, “Sport has the power to replace the world. “Since then, this idea has been repeated many times, without much follow-up. Still, the sense persists that football can bring people together, bridging social and political divisions through a shared love of football. For many young Londoners, Bloomsbury Football is the sporting organisation that is making a positive change in their world.
Bloomsbury is a UK charity that works for the lives of more than 5,000 young people every week, giving them access to football, entertainment and a sense of community. At a time when social isolation, obesity, intellectual illness and crime rates are on the rise, Bloomsbury brings other young people together to share their love of this beautiful game.
Founded in Camden Town, just north of Regent’s Park and the British Library, Bloomsbury has come a long way since its inception in 2018. From September to the end of November, passers-by at Kings Cross in central London had the chance to see the Game Changers Exhibition: an exhibition of 32 photographs of 16 Bloomsbury women celebrating their involvement in football. The exhibition also seeks to remove barriers to female participation and for women to reach their potential.
Bloomsbury was created by chief executive Charlie Hyman because of the demanding situations he considered as a grassroots coach in London. The sport, which aims to bring joy to young people and help boost their social development, has been marred by soggy fields, disorganised sessions and a lack of equipment. With inequality and prices surging in the city, other young people, especially those from disadvantaged communities, have been excluded from the game, unable to rent a box or pay club dues. Hyman has set up a charity that celebrates the uniqueness of the London network and gives other young people the chance to play the game they love.
Hyman’s aim was to create London’s largest grassroots football organisation and use the positive force of the beautiful game to enrich the lives of local children. Five years later, the deal is moving full speed ahead with 30 full-time staff members and 50 coaches. The arrangement has grown so much that it now offers a diversity of programs, adding its foundation, academy, futsal, summer camps, and soccer for other people with disabilities. Most importantly, Bloomsbury has earned a reputation for bringing other people from all walks of life in combination and instilling confidence, decision-making ability, and self-awareness. The basic precept of Bloomsbury is that it will never turn away any child, no matter how financially.
Overcoming demanding situations such as obesity, disconnection from the community, self-confidence and self-knowledge issues, and at the same time suffering for having time and space to play in the most populous city in the country is not an easy task. But Bloomsbury is committed to providing local young people with a space to train, get informed and have fun. Charlie believes that the key to solving many of these personal and societal problems is to activate young people. When asked why he is so confident that football has the strength to cope with today’s demanding social situations, Hyman highlights the positive behavioural adjustments among the young participants. He also points out that, compared to other sports, football is still the maximum available (little infrastructure is needed) and the maximum popular, and therefore can have the greatest impact.
In recent years, women’s football has become a precedent for Bloomsbury. Charlie points out that knowledge proves that “women don’t participate as much as boys. “Therefore, Bloomsbury has made a conscious effort “to embrace the societal concept that football is not for women. “When the Lionesses won Euro 2022 on home soil and qualified for the 2023 FIFA World Cup final, it was a very important time for the expansion of women’s football in the UK, with female participation expanding dramatically. Bloomsbury has been able to capitalise on this momentum and now works with more than 1,500 women every week. But the charity is trying to increase that number and attract more investment and resources to help women fall in love with football and stay in it.
Rebecca, 16, is one of the women who participated in the Game Changers exhibition. She is from the London borough of Brent, where Wembley Stadium is located, but was born in Brazil to Brazilian parents. Naturally, he took up football and has been at Bloomsbury for just over a year now. The young central midfielder says that football has helped her “develop friendships” and “forget everything that happens off the pitch”. Most importantly, he says he’s having a “smart” time gambling and has enjoyed his experience at Bloomsbury.
After playing inside the base for a while, Rebecca is now part of the Bloomsbury academy curriculum. Although she is more competitive, she notices that all the coaches have been very friendly. What excites her most is that she feels the love that the European Championship has awakened in women and says that “before Euro 2022, in my school team 10 women played football. Today there are 25 of us. ” In their eyes, this numerical growth is a reflection of the fact that the Lionesses are showing the country where women can do exactly what men do.
Carla, a football player from Bloomsbury, poses for a photograph as part of the Game Changers exhibition at Kings Cross in London.
Carla, 16, also appeared at the Kings Cross exhibition and, like teammate Rebecca, discovered her way to Bloomsbury through immigration. Originally from Canberra, Carla admits that she didn’t like London at first and didn’t need to move there. After a bad experience at a high-level academy in Australia, Carla was also hesitant to play competitively again. At Bloomsbury, he says he discovered “a sense of community”, where all the coaches and players are friendly. She says that in Australia she didn’t even communicate with the coaches and after seeing her sister leave the game and other teammates suffering from anxiety, she began to get nervous and wonder if she too had become stressed.
Today, Carla says, “I love playing football because it gives me a sense of belonging. The young right-back points out that the game introduces other people to other people who share the same interests and fosters friendship. In addition, he says he is “happiest just playing” and enjoys “being in nature, not thinking about school and bonding with his teammates. “The experience in Bloomsbury is so wonderful that Carla is considering attending a sports-focused university like Loughborough, where she can simply study computer science or maths, while continuing to play football.
Despite the positive feedback and continued growth, the work never stops for Charlie and his team. Bloomsbury continually reaches out to schools and communities looking to engage with more young people in hopes of keeping them active. The charity is expanding its portfolio of systems to allow young people to play more than once a week and has just finalised a five-year strategic plan. The aim is to “create more effect for less money in London”, with the hope of working with 20,000 young people per week. To do this, Charlie and his colleagues will need to work with stakeholders to secure the investment needed to deploy more operational capability while maintaining the quality of the systems they are currently delivering.
In a football-loving city like London, there are more young children to coach and more communities to bond with. Luckily, Bloomsbury exists to offer local youngsters the opportunity to play their favorite game every day and expand their skills for the rest. of their lives.
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