Football is the people’s sport. Too often, though, it is treated as a luxury and reserved for a privileged few. We’re changing that. At Bloomsbury, all children - regardless of background or financial circumstances – get the chance to experience professional-standard football coaching in state-of-the-art facilities. We know that the benefits of regular football are wide-ranging: that’s why our mission isn’t simply to hone children’s sporting abilities, but also to improve their prospects and to change their lives for the better.
Equality and accessibility are the pillars of Bloomsbury’s operational philosophy. Cost is a major barrier to participation in sport, particularly for the disadvantaged families which Bloomsbury exists to serve. It is for this reason that we have resolved never to allow financial concerns to be the reason why a child doesn’t access our services. All of our open sessions are free-to-access, as are the vast majority of our school sessions. For our other activities – which are, at least nominally, ‘paid’ services – our extensive scholarship and bursary model means that parents only pay what they can afford. Parents of children accessing free school meals, for example, receive an 80% discount on fees, and a full 55% of Bloomsbury children benefit from our bursary scheme.
Our extensive community outreach efforts have ensured that, each year, we support around 3000 children from a wide range of ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds: approximately 55% of our beneficiaries are of BAME origin, 33% receive free school meals, and 20% are girls. At Bloomsbury, personal background has no bearing on sporting opportunity. We also deliver an extremely high volume of services: an average academic year will see us provide 800 hours of sessions in schools alone.