ROCC Blogs - Cup Final Project

Good News from the Cup Final Project 2011
Written by Cup Final Project Team

16/11/2011

• 2207 young people attended Cup Final Sessions between 1st October 2010 -1st October 2011. This equated to a total contact time of 20,583 hours for young people who attended the Cup Final Project.
• 505 Sessions were delivered in this timeframe. With 102 Holiday Courses and 403 evening sessions being delivered.
• In the last year, more than 15 young people engaged on the Cup Final project have been referred to the Albion’s centre of excellence, performance centres, girls teams, Seagull Specials, and countless more have been encouraged to join local grass roots teams with our support.
• The project has lead to a decrease in anti-social behaviour by engaging with young people who are “well known to the police through their involvement with crime”. (Sussex Police)
• Daniel Cobden, PCSO for the Worthing Neighbourhood Policing Team: "There is one young adult male that was coming to our attention due to his behaviour. Through the football scheme we got to interact with him, to the point that when I saw him he would always ask if I was going to football that week. Without this contact and the opportunity for both the Police and the football team to work with him, he would almost certainly by now be a prolific offender."
• Of those young people removed from sessions for bad behaviour, the majority have been assimilated back into the scheme following their exclusion.
• Young people have travelled to several tournaments around Sussex and Surrey, made visits to Wembley Stadium, played matches alongside police officers, won tickets for home matches, and worn full Albion kit at events.
• Sessions were promoted through local schools, youth clubs and Pupil Referral Units as well as through the Youth Offending Team, local police force, and probationary services to engage the harder to reach community.
• A Youth Service spokesperson said: “The ever increasing numbers and loyalty from the young people attending each session and the huge commitment that the staff have towards both the young people and the community is overwhelming. These factors prove that the work that Brighton and Hove Albion is doing is an important asset to the local community. We look forward to working with them in the future.”
• In the last year, the Cup Final project has engaged regularly with young people coping with a broad range of medical and emotional challenges: ADHD, autism, ME, diabetes, speech impediments, deafness, mutism, bullying and learning difficulties to name but a few.
• More than 30 young people attended our annual Cup Final Residential at Ardingly College, home to some of the club’s first team training pitches. The residential provided coaching from some of the Albion’s leading technical coaches and emphasised the values of teamwork, inclusion, achievement, respect and self-belief.
• Many of the older participants are now moving into Albion Goals NEET project, while others have progressed into FA Level 1 and FA Level 2 coaching qualifications, or Brighton & Hove Albion’s Personal Best course – a nationally recognised qualification which encourages participants to support community projects through volunteering and employment.
• AITC and Cup Final Project will be linking up with the Justin Campaign to deliver Football provision in the Peacehaven Area.
• Annual Preston Park Tournament, supported by ROCC Staff succeeded in attracting over 250 young people from all over Sussex and Surrey to play Football.
• Nicole Webley (Guiness Trust) won Most Inspiring Female aged 14-16 at the 2011 National Kickz Awards at Villa Park. She also attended a reception in the House of Commons to help publicise the important role community football sessions has the deprived areas of the country.
• Conrad Honore through his Cup Final Football sessions was selected to attend the Preformance Centre (Specialising in coaching advanced players) He went on a fully subsidized tour in Denmark (The Denmark Cup) and managed through his good performance to earn a trial and a contract with BHAFC Centre of Excellence.

Cup Final Marketing Group 12th January 2011 - Update
Written by Luke Aldrich

03/02/2011

Met at Raven HA. A really positive day. Representatives from Raven, Orbit, Southern Housing, Worthing Homes and Mole Valley DC were all attending as were Brighton and Hove Albion to discuss ways of promoting the project. Among the ideas we thought we could get to work on a video promoting some of the grass roots work that Albion in the Community do. Some excellent hospitality from Laurence at Raven created a really positive and well fed environment. For me its fascinating to hear some of the issues that are prevalent in working with young people in particular in this sector. A couple of ROCC staff have accepted the challenge on the video front and we await results in the coming months!

Cup Final Marketing Group 12th January 2011
Written by Cup Final Project Team

09/12/2010

We are looking for interested parties and existing Housing Association partners to join with us in attending a Marketing Group to promote the excellent Albion CUPFINAL project. Currently scheduled at Raven Housing Trust for 10.30 on 12th January.

Please contact either Luke Aldrich or Laurence Nasskau if you are interested in attending.

Cup Final Tournament in the park
Written by Cup Final Project Team

28/08/2010

The previous days torrential weather might have put a few teams off but generally the turnout was really impressive as teams that ranged from well practised and well oiled playing machines to teams being dreamt up hastily in the car park over a can of fanta.The players came from all over the Sussex area.

ROCC contributed Claire James as Carol Vorderman in the scoring tent. Matt Watts was Francis Ford Coppola on the cameras, Ronnie Patel and Mark James were there in an ill defined coaching capacity (a bit like Stuart Pearce if you will). Simon Wallington was doing an impression of a hairier Howard Webb.

The best thing about this tournament is you don’t hear any adults shouting (as a coach of a mini soccer team that’s food for thought for all of us). The teams were mostly managed by the kids for the kids as Paul Weller used to say. And what a collection they were!

The winners of the Under 15s kind of summed things up. In first place was a highly proficient Portsmouth FC team that included some exceptionally professional looking players. 2nd Place We Love Our Nans 3rd Place Too Good 4th Dunno. I personally look forward to We Love our Nans finding a Saudi Arabian investor and rising all the way to the Premiership. Personal accolades went to Jordan Burstow (player of the tournament) and Mitchell Coates (Sportsmanship).

The Under 17s was won by Nukes (which I admit to not being up with things but sort of brings to mind The Cold War) 2nd Place Doe a Deer (that’s more like it). Player of the tournament was Peter Catt and MUFC won best sportsmanship- I shudder to think what that might actually be an abbreviation for.

The Under 10s was a joy to behold. This year we missed the three kids standing in the goal for the entire game having a chat and some of the play was quite conventional. Harry Pollard won Player of Tournament and Daisy Beard won best sportsperson.

The Under 12s was very well attended. Thors Hammers a well oiled playing machine won this with Mr Men in 2nd and Eastenders in 3rd (how Phil Mitchell managed to find the time with his other problems is a miracle). The best sportsteam were Patcham Girls, Chelsea Hansford won sportsmanship and Joe Lucas player of the day.

A great day with well behaved kids and well behaved adults playing for fun.

Watch the highlights of the Cup Final Tournament on YouTube

ROCC Sponsor Preston Park Charity Football Tournament
Written by Cup Final Project Team

23/07/2010

August 26th 2010 is the date for the days for the Cup Final Project. Last year upto 200 kids were playing in the park in a tournament that is organised free of charge by Albion in the Community.

Its one of those things that you only appreciate when you see the kids playing in teams and feeling that they belong to something that is important. Some kids through circumstance don’t always get this opportunity so for one day of the year to be a part of a team could make quite a difference.

Last year we were amazed at how good some of the players were and how much fun some of them had. This year we hope for more of the same! We won’t let Ronnie manage the best team again though because it went right to his head last year and was seen out shopping for a sheepskin coat and cigars!’ A full report will be available after the day.