Manchester City FC in the Community celebrates 20 years

Manchester City Football Club’s registered charity City in the Community celebrates 20 years of helping the people of Manchester and Tameside this year.

Formed as Manchester City Football in the Community scheme in 1986 CITC now engages with over 100,000 people a year through a range of sport, social inclusion and health programmes.

Since it was formed the scheme has seen a number of ex-City footballers work for it including Paul Power, Peter Barnes and Jason Beckford and is now lead by ex-goal keeper Alex Williams.

The Director of Community Affairs who was awarded an MBE in 2001 for his community work said: “When the scheme formed it was very much a case of a couple of football coaches, a mini bus and a bag of footballs, visiting schools across the City.

“But over the years the scheme has grown and develop to what it is today one of the best and most innovative Football in the Community schemes in the country.”

Manchester City was one of five clubs in the North West who took part in the pilot project organised by the Professional Football Association and has since gone on to win a number of prestigious awards for its work in Manchester and Tameside.

In 2005 the scheme was awarded the FA Development Award for Health, The Greater Manchester Award for Social Responsibility and has been shortlisted in the Sport England Best Community programme at the Sports Industry Awards for the past two years.

Following the move to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003 the community scheme put together a new year five year strategy the ‘blue:print’ which outlines seven themes of work which form the core of the community schemes work.

The themes, football, health, social inclusion, life skills, environmental awareness, citizenship and quality management, allow CITC to engage with all levels of the community from the ages of 6 – 75, to people with disabilities and people who find themselves marginalised from society.

Alex said: “Everyone at the club is rightly proud of the work that CITC has done over the last 20 years.

“From working with budding young footballers to helping people find employment or re-enter training everything that the scheme does is done with a passion and commitment that underlines the fact that Manchester City is the club of the people and neighbourhoods of Manchester.”

For more information about City in the Community please contact 0161 438 7715 or e-mail citc@mcfc.co.uk.