European Voluntary Service Volunteers

In May this year, three volunteers, Daniel Barrios Martin from Spain, Cihat Ozer from Turkey and Tommaso Usseglio from Italy, arrived in Manchester to take part in a European Voluntary Service (EVS) project with FC United, staying with us until the end of August.

The volunteers came to Manchester thanks to a grant from the European Union’s Youth in Action fund administered in this country by the British Council. FC United made a grant application in the summer of 2013 for three volunteers to come to Manchester and support our community work this summer. The grant helps to cover the costs of providing accommodation, transport around Manchester, food and flights.

The rest of the funding for the volunteers comes from club funds. Our application to become a partner in this centred on our work with people in deprived areas of Manchester and the diverse ethnic background this involves, inducting the volunteers into our values of inclusion, equality of opportunity and respect for others.

Of course, the volunteers will also be encouraged and assisted in attending FC United’s games so that they can become fully immersed in the club and experience first-hand the culture around FC.

Between them, they than coach rugby and volleyball as well as football, so they can add a bit of variety to the sessions we deliver. They will be asked to develop and deliver activities and projects based on their own interests, skills and cultural backgrounds.

They are living in a house in Fallowfield with two FC supporters, Chris and Jordan, and they will be in another house in Burnage come July. This has allowed them to feel a part of both FC United and Manchester throughout their time here. They have already taken a keen interest in the club and what it stands for and are looking forward to cheering the team during pre-season and the beginning of the NPL season.

The three lads have been working on a few projects and have regular timetabled sessions which they help out on and run. They helped out with a community football session at South Failsworth Primary School and Simon Youd, who is a community activist in Sale West and runs Skillz FC, had this to say afterwards:

"Thanks for today. The EVS volunteers did a great job, enthusiastic and smiling all day, a really great group of people."

They have also contributed to our regular work in Abraham Moss Community School. Paul Barrett, the school’s Community Sports Development Manager, said, "The European Voluntary service volunteers from FC United were really helpful when delivering the school’s holiday programme. We had far more children attending our half-term sports activities than we expected and having the volunteers there meant we had the capacity to provide for them. The volunteers go about their work with enthusiasm and this rubs off on the children and young people who attend the sessions."

Daniel, Cihat and Tommaso have made a good impression on all the office staff and others they have come across when working for the club as well. They are always smiling and are approaching everything with great enthusiasm. We look forward to our continued work with them.

More info on the European Voluntary Service can be found here: http://europa.eu/youth/eu/article/european-voluntary-service-what-it-really_en