On a bright October day there was a great buzz inside and outside Barton Pavilion, where Leanne and her committed team of coaches – with warm smiles and lots of fun and banter -were sharing out healthy snacks, provided by the Barton Food Bank to enthusiastic young people aged 8-11on their half-term Football Holiday Club.  

Listening to some of the young people while they had a moment of creative reflection after vigorous football skills, it was clear that they were really enjoying themselves, gaining confidence through learning new skills and building friendships. One young lad said, “I love being here, football is my life!”. 

Joining them on their healthy walk to the Eat Wells Café at Barton Neighbourhood Centre I witnessed ‘community building’ going on amongst the children.  I was able to chat with Leanne and some of the girls. Leanne, with her obvious passion and skills for engaging young people in football, shared some of the heartwarming stories of positive change in the lives of some of the holiday club participants. For some, previously unconfident and shy girls, this was their first experience of football.  Leanne had witnessed them blossoming during the week, through building friendships and engaging more confidently in the activities.  

Sitting down with the kids and enjoying some delicious spaghetti bolognese, served up by the warm and welcoming Eat Wells Cafe team, was a heartwarming example of community collaboration, mutually strengthening of both groups through working together and also enriching the kids experience, health awareness and learning.  

“I did like the food because I did notice that all of it was based on healthy stuff.  They don’t really like us eating junk food because a lot of footballers don’t go out and eat junk food.  They eat a lot of salad and healthy stuff.” 

Between the kids’ mouthfuls of ‘spag bog’, which was the children’s own healthy menu choice for Wednesday that week, I was able to hear snippets of what the holiday club experience meant to them. Several girls talked about having not played football before and not realising it could be so fun. Others talked about persuading their friends to come. When asked how it helped their health and wellbeing, they said that the food and the football was helping them “grow more healthy and have more energy.”  

Word had obviously got round about how great the holiday club was, as bookings were much higher than previous holiday clubs, which was such an encouragement to Leanne and her team. 

Leanne shared, “We’re really proud to say that almost 50% of the players that are in the club are female now.  Not only that, we have six female fully qualified referees that have been sponsored by the club to do their qualification and we’ve supported them.  Really the hope of doing this holiday club is to get more children involved in football who wouldn’t usually.” 

Rachel Woods, Community Capacity Builder, Community First Oxfordshire  

Well Together is being delivered in partnership by OCVA and Community First Oxfordshire and has been funded by the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (NHS BOB ICB).