Bury using the football club as a vehicle for growing confidence

The Shakers' 'Play It Safe: Stronger Minds – Safer Streets' initiative, aimed at 18–25-year-olds in the local area, combines football at Gigg Lane with educational workshops.

The project, which was launched in late July with the help of local MP James Frith, received a vital funding boost from Pitching In's Trident Community Fund and has attracted approximately 30 sign-ups.

Casey Lynchey, Bury FC's Head of Operations and Community, believes the initiative, which took a break over the summer before restarting in early October, can provide a pathway into the club long after the programme finishes.

“We're already starting to speak to them about options,” she said. “We've got a BTEC that runs from the club, which for some of them could be an option, but also the recreational football, which is just the fun part.

“We're also trying to give them some volunteering experiences on matchdays. We've started speaking to them about what their options are when this particular project finishes.

“We want to integrate them into existing provisions because we don't want the benefits they're getting from attending to end when the block finishes.

"There are little groups of friendships forming now, and there have been people from different backgrounds as well. That was part of the community cohesion element of it.”

The Trident Community Fund, which awards grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 for community-based projects within its leagues, has handed out more than £750,000 to support more than 100 initiatives since 2020.

The programme at Bury will see the delivery of six one-hour football training sessions, six one-hour fitness sessions through King Cole Boxing Academy, as well as 12 facilitated workshops which will address topics such as resilience, stress management, emotional regulation, conflict resolution and knife crime awareness.

Alongside that, a celebratory 11-a-side fixture will be played at Gigg Lane, due to be in early December, and Lynchey has been encouraged by the attendees’ growing confidence and engagement.

“It's using the football club as the vehicle for that,” she explained. “We can definitely see how their involvement has been really positive. Even their participation in the workshops has changed so much from the first few, where they were quite sheepish and not really wanting to get involved.

“Their confidence and their social presence, you're really starting to see that. The feedback has been really good.”

With Bury determined to provide continued opportunities for those involved, Lynchey believes the project demonstrates football's power to make a difference beyond the pitch.

She added: “I'm really proud that it's given the young people attending positive role models, positive outlooks and made an improvement to them individually and collectively.

“You can see the friendships that are forming through it, and that's something we want to continue after the project's finished. It's absolutely something to be proud of as a club that football can do that.”

The Trident Community Foundation, established by Entain's award-winning Pitching In programme, has awarded over £750,000 in grants to support projects at Trident League clubs across the country. Find out more at https://www.entaingroup.com/sustainability-esg/social-impact/pitching-in/