Premier League Charitable Fund Highlights 2024 - part one

As we reach the end of 2024, we’re taking a look at some of the Premier League Charitable Fund highlights from the last 12 months.

This year has seen our charity welcome a few new faces to the team and say a fond farewell to others. As we celebrate the impact of 2024, we want to recognise the support of every member of our team, the commitment from our funders and the people who make up our network of more than 100 professional football club charities, without whom none of this would be possible.

It’s been quite a year…

January

We kicked off 2024 with an OBE for our Chief Executive, Ruth Shaw. Ruth Shaw OBE , who has been with the Premier League Charitable Fund since 2018, was recognised in the King's New Year's Honours for her services to football and gender equality. Our former trustee William Bush CBE also received a CBE for services to sport.

Their inclusion on the New Year’s Honours List 2024 is not only recognition of their achievements but also an acknowledgement of the work of the Premier League Charitable Fund and the professional football club charities we support.

Children and young people are at the very heart of our work and, as part of our commitment to giving young people a voice, we hosted?the first in-person Premier League Youth Summit, giving young people aged 16-to-18-years-old the chance to come together and address topics that matter to them.

The event, at the home of Burton Albion Football Club , supported Premier League Kicks and Premier League Inspires participants from 38 professional football club charities to engage in discussions around gender equality, anti-racism, LGBTQ+ issues, environmental sustainability and career pathways.

Participants also heard from inspirational young adults, including Sky Sports News reporter Fadumo Olow and Capital Xtra DJ Kennedy Taylor, alongside interactive workshops and sessions devised to support the development of key employability and leadership skills.

The Premier League Youth Summit began in season 2020/21 with the aim of involving and supporting young people in positive conversations while empowering them to tackle issues that affect their communities. More than 1000 young people have contributed to the discussions to date.

February

In February we had the return of the Premier League Primary Stars National Girls regional football tournaments.

Regional qualifying events hosted by club charities in their local communities gave thousands of under-11 girls the opportunity to compete for the chance to represent their Premier League, EFL or National League side in the tournament finals in June.

These regional tournaments help to inspire girls across England and Wales to enjoy the many benefits of football and bring young people from diverse backgrounds together to celebrate their love of the game.

Sticking with February, the Premier League’s More Than A Game celebrations saw clubs across the Premier League, EFL and National League name a Community Captain, somebody at the heart of their Premier League-funded programmes who deserves recognition for their commitment and contribution to the game and society.

At the Premier League Charitable Fund, we used this moment to celebrate these individuals alongside the League and recognise the collective power of our 6,200 strong club charity workforce. The campaign also gave us the opportunity to thank The Premier League for its world-leading investment into our charity that enables us to use the power of football as a force for good.

February was also the month that the Premier League Primary Stars programme helped to instil positive behaviours in children by growing self-belief in girls and inspiring allyship in boys, thanks to Nike Football and the Premier League via our Active Allies resource.

This rollout included the Premier League Kit Scheme for more than 58,000 girls; video messages from England players Chloe Kelly and Mason Mount for assemblies in primary schools; and interactive resources for teachers designed by experts to encourage discussion and inspire action across primary schools in England and Wales and ensure that football really is everyone’s game.

March

March began with a celebration of some of the incredible women in our network. From Arsenal’s youth panel participant, Gloria, to our trustee, Toni Thorne, we shone the spotlight on inspirational female leaders in football.

Keen to empower the next generation of female leaders too, March was the moment we celebrated the Premier League Changemakers.

More than 50 girls joined former Tottenham Hotspur Women's player Chloe Morgan at the National Football Museum for a special Premier League Changemakers event, as part of the Premier League’s commitment to supporting women and girls.

The event involved 12–to-15-year-olds from 27 professional football club charities coming together to discuss equity, equality and allyship in the game, as well as the significance of women’s items in the museum’s Football Heritage Collection.

To demonstrate their commitment to supporting gender equality, the event culminated in the unveiling of Morgan’s 2017 Tottenham Hotspur Women’s shirt, signed by all Premier League Changemakers event participants. The shirt, which will be embellished with the word ‘Changemakers’, will be on display as part of the museum’s Football Heritage Collection in 2025.

And of course, World Book Day, the annual celebration of authors, literacy and the joy of reading also returned in March. For this year’s event, more than 50,000 free books were given away to children across England and Wales through the Premier League Primary Stars education programme and over half a million young people tuned into the Footy and Booky quiz hosted by teacher Kit Brown and author Ben Lyttleton .

Since Premier League Primary Stars began in 2017, more than 300,000 free books have been gifted to young people with an estimated value of ￡2.4million, thanks to the education programme’s partnership with the National Literacy Trust

April

In April more than 200 young people from across England and Wales joined us at Wembley Stadium to showcase their ideas for raising mental health awareness in their local communities, as part of the Premier League's?Inside Matters campaign.

The celebration event was the culmination of this year's Premier League Inspires Challenge, which empowers participants to take on a social action project and make a difference to the world around them.

Teams representing 45 professional football clubs were in attendance as they presented their proposals, attended workshops and gained inspiration from other young people.

The Challenge is one part of Premier League Inspires, which is delivered in partnership? with the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) and allows clubs to support 11–18-year-olds who may be at risk of not reaching their potential as they move through the education system and early adulthood.

May

Throughout May we continued our commitment to raising mental health awareness.

Participants John and Charlie on our Premier League and Professional Footballers' Association funded activity at Wolves Foundation and Aston Villa Football Club Foundation, shared their stories to highlight how club charities offer a lifeline to many in their local communities.

June

In June we joined forces with EFL in the Community to deliver an inaugural safeguarding conference for designated safeguarding leads across club charities.

More than 85 delegates representing 80 club charities from across the Premier League and EFL joined the conference at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux Stadium, designed to ensure that everyone, regardless of their position in the club or charity, knows and understands the role they play in safeguarding participants.

Alongside the conference, we also moved into our summer event season.

First up on our summer tournament calendar was this year’s Premier League Primary Stars tournaments where nearly 500 children had the opportunity to play on the pitch at Brentford Football Club 's Gtech Community Stadium in the?first-team kit of their professional football club.

In June we also had more than 450 participants representing more than 50 professional football clubs come together at one of three Premier League Disability Football Festivals, hosted by Wolves Foundation , Middlesbrough FC Foundation and Chelsea Football Club Foundation, to celebrate the Premier League’s year-round commitment to providing access to football for all.

The pan-disability football festivals, delivered by club charities in partnership with the Premier League Charitable Fund, aim to create opportunities for players to develop their skills and confidence in a supportive environment, catering for the needs of people who are neurodivergent and those who have sensory or physical disabilities.

Discover what the tournaments meant to those taking part.

Take a look at our highlights from the second half of 2024 here.

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