22nd Old Boys Football Homework Club

Who are we?

22nd Old Boys & Ladies

We are a community based club in North/West Belfast an area of extremely high level of social and economic deprivation. We have provided a safe space for football for 73 years for people of all genders and ages within the local community. WE have Men's teams, Ladies teams and youth teams. We hold IFA Peoples and Clubs award and this year we won IFA accredited regional club of the year. 

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are crowd funding to run a homework football project and because of the current cost of living crisis we want to provide this free for our community to help children not only participate in sport but help with their education at the same time. 

We will run this project twice a week on Tuesday & Thursday nights where the children supervised and assisted by qualified and access NI checked people help them complete their homework. Then once the homework is completed the children will be taken out to the 3G pitch where they will get football coaching. With this being 22nd Youths training nights the children will be encouraged to stay on and attend our clubs training which is straight after so providing a pathway into our club and help to group our youth sections.

How we’ll spend the money raised

All money raised will be spent on this project. 

By supporting us we aim to encourage young girls and boys to play the sport they love. This in-turn will help them out of social isolation and make new friends or re-acquaint with old friends. We will also engage with local schools to try and get those who haven't participated in football before into the game. 

With your support we will provide quality training facilities for the young people, quality 3G pitch and a community building to do their homework. 

The equipment with which to train.

Qualified IFA coaches to help the young people learn not only the football skills, but fitness and teamwork. 

Educate them around things that effect their mental health such as bullying, through mental wealth games training. 

Kits and training kits for the young people to give them a sense of belonging.

Community impact

We work within our local community not only to bring football to all but to promote positive mental wellbeing too. This is something the club is very passionate about both within the club and in the wider community. We work with local organisations such as TAMHI and Extern to help spread, mental awareness and break down stigma surrounding it. As part of the training sessions, we include mental wealth games training for the young people to help them deal with any problems they might have. We can then signpost them to the relevant agencies.

We run a yearly event free to the community in Woodvale Park called Take 5 for Wellbeing and this is to promote positive mental wellbeing through sport. We are involved in many different community groups such as SAFE project, Community Response programme, Shine forum and SAMHI. 

This project will also help the children with their education by helping them complete their homework in a timely fashion and to an appropriate standard.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!