Do LFC care for the community?

"Wait until I tell everyone back at school about this."

It's Friday August 26 and in south Liverpool, school's still out for summer. The excitable young boy, along with over 120 other local kids, has just completed the fifth and final day of a special Liverpool FC summer football camp and with his certificate in hand, he couldn't look prouder.

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Fast forward a week and the boy I saw excitedly greeting his dad at Goals Soccer Centre won't have been the only child in a Merseyside playground on that first day back in school boasting about being coached by Liverpool Football Club this summer. In total, over 400 children from all over the city received free training from the club's highly-skilled Community coaches during the school holidays.

If we're playing the football camps numbers game, here's the figures that matter:

57 young people and adults took part in the club's free 'Respect 4 All' disability camp which took place for five days

115 kids attended three 'Equality 4 All' camps at Wavertree Sports Park for three days a week. As part of the club's social inclusion project, Asian music artist Jaz Dhami attended the camp for one day working with some of the young people

20 girls attended the department's first 'Goals 4 Girls' female-only camp at Lifestyles Peter Lloyds in West Derby. Liverpool Ladies captain Vicki Jones coached and spoke to the girls about the Liverpool Ladies Teams

50 young people registered for three weeks of LFC Community coaching at Broadgreen Technology College

120 children aged between 5 and 12 attended the club's mainstream five-day camp for boys and girls in South Liverpool with facilities offered by Goals Soccer Centre

53 young people have received coaching three afternoons a week for five weeks at Anfield Sports and Community Centre throughout the summer

50 young people registered for a free camp in the Wirral in the final week of August

Having spent some time at three of the above camps and seen firsthand how much effort is put into making each session an unforgettable experience for the kids who attend, it's hard to understand those who would have you believe the club simply doesn't care for the young people of this city.

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Bill Bygroves (below, far left) is sat at a table in the canteen of Bridge Chapel Centre eating a slice of toast and drinking a cup of tea. He's here to speak to me for this article but if truth be told, he'd probably rather be anywhere else right now. It's nothing personal - I've known Bill, the club's Chaplain and Community Department manager, for over 10 years - it's just that he's not one for banging either his own or his department's drum.

Having signed schoolboy forms for Liverpool in the late 60s, he unfortunately never made the grade as a player. He has however been a coach at what was our Centre for Excellence and then at the Academy under Steve Heighway before moving into coaching in the community for Brian Hall, the former Liverpool star of the 70s who was instrumental in helping the club reach out into the community.

"It's been amazing to see the club's Community Department grow over the last 10 or 11 years," he says. "Brian Hall laid really good foundations. There were just a couple of us at the beginning and now there is 19 full-time staff, over 40 sessional staff and a number of volunteers. We've built up really good relationships with Community leaders in the Anfield and Breckfield area. We were asked to focus on this area because while we can't do everything, we could do something. We started the Sweeper Zone as a result of a survey in which local people were saying that litter on match days was a real issue. Now hundreds of local young people help with the Sweeper Zone on match days during the course of the season and the city council have an all-red LFC-badged sweeper vehicle cleaning the streets.

"We started coaching in the local schools in Anfield and Breckfield. We now coach in 52 schools in the city and 25 in the Anfield / Breckfield area. I would like to stress that throughout the last 11 years this has been free coaching from Liverpool Football Club. We then started to do holiday soccer camps in Stanley Park, now there are camps in lots of different places in Liverpool. These are free soccer camps that encourage young people to play football. Our focus has been on local children having the opportunity to attend the camps which we know the parents have really appreciated."

What is the real purpose of the football camps?

Bill Bygroves: "Our goal is to get children off the streets to enjoy really good coaching from really good coaches. We want to build relationships. It's not about selling the brand - it's about trying to build relationships. People actually matter and young people actually matter. If a youngster turns up and really enjoys the time spent with us then they may well go on to be lifelong Liverpool supporters. If they support other teams, we want them going home and telling others how good the camp has been.

"The fact that they're free obviously helps working and non-working parents too because summer holidays can be expensive times for lots of families. We're in a recession and not everyone can afford for their child to go to summer camps. Although our camps are free, we still attempt to deliver coaching at a high standard so that the youngsters who come along from six years old upwards are given age appropriate coaching with the emphasis on 'serious fun'.

How important is it that there are other elements to these coaching camps other than just trying to make youngsters better footballers?

"It's very important. All of us know that there are lots of issues affecting youth culture in this and other major cities. We think it is important to do our part in passing on important social messages. At the end of our 'Goals' camp we did a brief presentation of our 'Truth 4 Youth' programme. The children and the parents listened as the coaches passed on vitally important messages. 'Rule out the racist', 'Ban the bully', 'Drop the drugs', 'Shoot goals not guns', 'Say no to knife crime ', 'More important than being a good footballer is being a good person' and 'You'll never walk alone'. These messages are part and parcel of everything that we do. Each child took home a workbook to fill in and the feedback we received from the parents was really good.

Why then, with all this work happening, do some people still think the Club is more interested in winning new fans in Asia and elsewhere than looking after the ones we already have on our doorstep? Why is there a perception amongst some that Liverpool FC - and by association, your department - does not do much in the community for the people who live in Liverpool?

"Well, the first thing to say is that perception is not always reality. Sometimes people perceive things to be true when they are not. The second thing to say is, come along and have a look at what the community department is doing in our city. The third thing to say is that the department has been awarded the prestigious CommunityMark.

"There are only a limited amount of companies within the UK who've actually been awarded the CommunityMark so that shows we've been doing something right. It's a hugely detailed process of monitoring and evaluation and our club is privileged to have been given it.

"One of our mottos is: 'Well done is better than well said'. It's easy to talk up a community scheme and just tick boxes but we didn't want to do that. We believe that eventually over time people will begin to appreciate the good work being done. Of course we understand the need to inform our supporters about what we do, which thankfully you're doing for us. However, doing the work quietly, consistently and with integrity is more important than publicity.

"I would say to anyone who doubts our commitment, come to our department any day of the week and we will show you around and you can see for yourself the work being done.

"Speak to the young people and the parents in the 'Respect 4 All' Centre and hear what they have to say. Speak to the parents and young people in our 'Ability Counts' programme. Speak to the homeless men and women we have coached. Ask the teachers and pupils in our local schools what they think of our 'Truth 4 Youth' assemblies or our 'Tactics 4 Families' lessons. The club has received hundreds of letters of appreciation saying, this is really good - keep up the good work.

"Our Community Department has just taken on a new Foundation Director. We think that the department is now ready to move onto the next level. Hopefully, good foundations have been laid and now the public will hear and see more and more of the excellent work done in the name of Liverpool Football Club for the genuine good of people of this city and beyond."

Does it hurt you when you hear people say, Liverpool doesn't do enough in the local community?

"It doesn't hurt because the most important people - the people we try to help - know the truth. For example, the 'Respect 4 All' centre is very dear to all of our hearts and anyone who has visited, including our Managing Director Ian Ayre, has been very impressed. On Tuesday night we cater for people with severe learning difficulties, on Wednesday for the blind and visually impaired, on Thursday our friends with physical disabilities come along and on Friday we host wheelchair users.

"Tom, one of our wheelchair coaches, is the first wheelchair football coach that Liverpool FC has ever had. That's tremendous.  Declan, one of our blind young people also has multiple disabilities. His mum said he didn't say a word for the first seven years of his life but now he sings at our centre and loves coming along. His family says it has added real value to his life.

"Nathan was one of two boys from our centre who sadly died very young. His family asked me to come and speak at his funeral. One of the photographs they had of him was of Nathan at the 'Respect 4 All' centre.  His Mum said that he loved coming and would smile all the time. What value can you put on that? People matter, community matters.

"We want our club to be known for its work in the community. Of course we all want to win trophies but this football club is about more than just football matches.

"Let me tell you about 'Kickz' [an LFC EFC Community programme designed to keep young people off the streets and out of trouble]. Our 'Kickz' programme has won a national award.  One of our 'Kickz' players was fatally stabbed in his own street. The club tried to really support the family in their trauma and grief. This event traumatized the family and shocked the community and highlighted just how important this work and our messages about knife crime, gun crime and gang culture really is."

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If Rishi Jain didn't exist, Bill Bygroves would surely have invented him as the perfect role model of what a kid from this city can become. The day we meet, Thursday August 4, Rishi's got his hands full. It's three days into the 'Equality 4 All' summer camp he's organised at Picton Sports Centre in Wavertree and over 100 kids have turned up to receive three days of free coaching. While the youngest boys and girls present are eight, there are teenagers right up to the age of 19 here today - that's five years older than Rishi was when he first started working for the club's Community team.


"I won the 'Young Person of the Year' award for my community work when I was 14. I'd get on the bus after school and head straight down to the local sports centre (Anfield Sport & Community Centre) to help out as a volunteer. "I spoke to Bill [Bygroves] and Eddie [Sullivan, Community Coach] and eventually I was encouraged to take my level 1 coaching badge and was lucky enough to be given sessional coaching work.  I then went through University, got my degree and came back to work here when I graduated."

Today Rishi Jain is the club's Social Inclusion officer and someone who knows all about the work LFC do in and around the city.

"The camp this week ['Equality 4 All' in Wavertree] and the one next week is all about getting kids of all different ethnicities and backgrounds to meet and play together through football. The weather isn't the best but we're having lots of fun and both the kids and the parents seem really happy. Most of the parents were really surprised the camp was free. Surprised but delighted all the same."

And what have the kids been saying?

"'Can we come back next year?' 'When's it starting again?' A lot of them say they want to attend our evening sessions, which don't start until September but run right through until July.  In Toxteth and the city centre we coach lots of kids from the African and Jewish communities, we're in Wavertree with the Chinese community and then lots of different kids from different ethnic backgrounds in Kensington. No session is exclusive to any one set of kids from a particular background though. The whole idea is to be inclusive in everything we do but when we're focused on a particular area, you tend to find that the majority of kids will be from one background."

So what does the role of Social Inclusion Officer for Liverpool Football Club entail?

"I run three projects.  I run 'Equality 4 All' sessions and 'Goals 4 Girls', which is all about making girls aware of sexual health and peer-pressure. I deliver those messages and then do some additional coaching. The girls enjoy it because sometimes they don't really want to play football with lads. As well as these sorts of camps and evenings - I run 11 projects a week - I'll also work with the club on HR policies and stuff like that. The kids I see every day are all local, all in the city and all being coached for free. The feedback we get is great because they turn up every week. If they keep coming back every week then you know you're doing something right."

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Josh Brown (below) has still got three hours left before the camp at Goals in Speke finishes for the week and already he's talking about wanting to come back next summer. The 11-year-old is due to start 'big school' at the Halewood Centre for Learning in a week's time and insists the camp has been brilliant.

"It's my first time and it's been really good," he tells Liverpoolfc.tv on his way back from a snack break.  "I'd like to come again if it's on again next summer because I've made some new friends including a lad who is going to be starting the same new school as me.

"The coaches have all been really nice as well and said 'well done' and stuff when I've scored good goals or done good skills. One of my coaches was Scott Fowler, who is Robbie Fowler's younger brother. Their hair looks the same but I think Robbie is the better player!"

Stella Rogers (below), like Josh, was also present for the week-long camp at Goals in Speke - the third LFC camp she had attended this summer, having been at the 'Equality 4 All' camp in Wavertree in early August and the 'Goals 4 Girls' camp in West Derby a couple of weeks later. Only eight, she's no stranger to club's community coaches - whether seeing them deliver 'Truth 4 Youth' assemblies in her school in South Liverpool, attending summer camps for the past three years or combining football and disability awareness on special school away days, as LFC did with her entire year from Our Lady's Bishop Eaton primary school last Wednesday.

"I've loved all the camps but he best one for me was the 'Goals 4 Girls', definitely," she says. "Vicki Jones, the captain of the Liverpool Ladies team, was coaching us and I got invited for a trial at the LFC Ladies School of Excellence. It was the best day of my life when I was told I had got in and now I'm training there every week for the whole season."

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It's gone four o'clock at the Goals Soccer Centre in Speke and the last of the kids are leaving. Sat in his office, the centre's General Manager Colin Perry looks almost as happy as the children who have just departed for home with their certificates and LFC goody bags full of poster magazines and easy-to-read booklets reminding them about the messages they've been taught today about always trying to do the right thing. Perry, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, is delighted the centre is being used by the club to coach so many local kids. "We provide all the facilities here absolutely free of charge to Liverpool and they in turn provide the coaching free of charge to the kids. It's something we're really proud to be involved with and it's not just in the summer either that we do this. Every Wednesday we hand over the facilities to Liverpool FC to invite a different school down to coach as part of their 'Goals' programme. I know what Liverpool do in the community because I see it firsthand but so much happens that never gets publicised. I think people would be surprised."

Outside Perry's office, Scott Fowler and the rest of the coaches present today are busy taking down all the LFC banners, signage and mock TV advertising hoardings that were kindly donated for the camp by Standard Chartered. For Fowler (pictured below), who joined the club's Community Department five years ago and who organised this week's camp, it's been a real success.

"When we had the idea for the camp, we didn't want it to be just another football camp," he says. "We wanted it to be a proper Liverpool Football Club experience. As you've seen today, the facilities are great and Standard Chartered have helped by donating the same banners and props that they'd use for the football clinics in Kenya, Korea and London.

"The aim of the camp for me was to bring children together to participate in football and feel involved. Through our relationship with this centre, we're making this facility accessible to all - no matter how rich or poor you may be. For lots of the kids who were here today, if this camp wasn't free they probably couldn't afford to attend it and we don't want to put that barrier in front of any child from this city. The fact that we've seen over 100 kids every day this week here is brilliant. Everyone's enjoyed it - the kids, the parents and us the coaches. I mean, what's not to like? You'll have seen kids with Everton shirts, kids with Barcelona and Spain shirts on and that important to me because although this is an LFC-run camp, it's for all the children of this city. We don't turn anyone away.

"If you come down here on a Wednesday, you'll find us holding a 'Goals 4 All' day with a set of kids for a different local school every week. It's a day out of school for the children and we'll put on an interactive session where they get to play football and games but we'll also try to teach them some important social messages in an interesting and engaging way. We talk about Luis Suarez and how he's the first ever Uruguayan player to play for Liverpool and how good he's been. We show them pictures of John Barnes with a banana being thrown at him and explain that even though many people may see him as one of Liverpool's best ever players, he was still subject to racist abuse. We show everyone how he answered the racists in the best possible way which was to do his talking on the pitch. We talk about Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and lots of great role models for the kids.

"It's all about getting involved with the kids, trying to reach out to them and showing them a positive path that they can take in life. We can't make them all brilliant footballers but we can certainly try and help them become brilliant young people and have some fun along the way. If you ask me, that's exactly the role Liverpool Football Club should be playing in the community."