"I’m privileged to see the impact our charity has in Burnley"
The Premier League Charitable Fund
The Premier League Charitable Fund creates and supports activities that inspire young people to achieve their potential
To mark?International Women's Day?(Friday 8 March), The Premier League Charitable Fund has spoken to five female leaders in football to hear about their experiences and inspirations.
We start the series by hearing from Helen Gurman , who was appointed CEO of?Burnley FC in the Community?in January 2023.
Tell us about your background
I'm Burnley born and bred. After going to university in Newcastle, I started my career in policy development, with a focus on community cohesion, health, and equality, diversity, and inclusion.
After a career break in Malaysia, I returned to Burnley and taught A Level Politics at a local college until five years ago. It was then that an opportunity arose at Burnley FC in the Community .
I started my role at the charity as company secretary and have developed through the organisation to my role as CEO. It's been a fantastic journey.
What does your job entail?
As CEO of Burnley FC in the Community, I lead the charity. With a workforce exceeding 100 full-time and part-time staff, our primary objective is harnessing the power of football to drive positive change in the local community.
The charity's efforts are channelled into three key areas: football, sport and education; welfare and inclusion and community facilities. Our diverse programmes cover a wide range of issues including mental health, youth violence, cancer rehabilitation, food poverty and numerous others.
We also run three facilities, a foodbank, an outdoor education venue that allows young people to get their first experience of staying away from home, and a leisure centre. Part of my role is to oversee all of these programmes and facilities and ensure we are supporting our community in the best way we can.
Why is this role important to you??
This role is so important to me because I see every day how significant the change can be. Our key aims are to raise aspirations, to help people live healthy lives and to create a level playing field. If you do those three things, the change can be huge. If aspirations are raised, that continues to trickle down the generations.
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How important are female role models in football?
Female representation is absolutely crucial. I sometimes talk to young people and they ask me what I do and when I say I'm a CEO, I see a flicker in their eyes. It's good to challenge people's perceptions.
It's good for young people to see women in positions that they wouldn't necessarily assume they would hold. If you look at the women in these positions, they're doing a really good job. That's powerful.
It's about smashing those stereotypes and giving people an understanding of the roles that exist in football.?
The theme of International Women's Day 2024 is inspiring inclusion, how do you do that in your role?
There's lots of things we do through our projects to inspire inclusion. In the next month we have our biggest Community Iftar yet, we have a?Premier League Primary Stars?tournament for girls, a Midnight Ramadan League and so much more.
We are trying to create a level playing field right across our programmes. When we plan an event, we ask ourselves, are we being inclusive? Are we reaching people who we might not normally reach? What are we doing to reach them?
A key strap line for us is that we're one club for all and we believe that we are the heart of the community for everybody who wants to be part of Burnley Football Club .?
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Don't put limits on yourself and don't think that something is not for you. There's a saying, 'if not you, then who?'
l would tell my younger self to be confident, that you can walk into a room and know that you deserve to be in the position you're in, because you've worked hard and got there on merit.
Burnley FC in the Community is one of more than 100 club charities supported by The Premier League via the?Premier League Charitable Fund?to create positive sporting, health, personal and education opportunities for children, young people and the wider community.
To read the full interview with Helen, please visit 'I’m privileged to see the impact our charity has in Burnley' (premierleague.com)