This summer, we collaborated with Mears Group to deliver an event specifically for their staff and service users.

The Mears Partnerships team won a business-wide challenge and were awarded funding to support a community project of their choice. The team decided to host a small sided football tournament, held at Fleet Lane, linked in with the Euros. It created playing opportunities for both staff across the business and its service users from across Yorkshire, bringing people together through football to celebrate their love of the game.

Football Development Officer, Tom Dent said: “This was a fantastic event to host at the County FA, providing a great opportunity for staff and service users to come together through football. The event brought together individuals from a variety of backgrounds through their love of the game. The tournament was competitive throughout but played in great spirit, it was a fantastic opportunity to integrate and socialise as well as scoring a few goals!”

Sophie Hepworth, Partnership Manager, Mears Group, said: “It was great to work with West Riding FA on the planning of this event - Mears staff, service users and other local football teams took part, and it was lovely to see everyone come together to play friendly competitive sports and to support service users to integrate with people of different backgrounds. I really enjoyed the day and I hope to host another event in the future working alongside West Riding FA. A big thank you to Tom and his team for ensuring everything ran smoothly.” 

The event was attended by more than 70 players, making up 8 teams with a mix of staff and service users in each team. With group stages followed by finals, we eventually had an overall winner and a supplementary cup winner, with 26 fixtures in total and over 116 goals!

Take a look at the video below to see all the action:

If you want more information on how you can get involved in similar community based projects, contact the Football Development team on 0113 282 1222.