This is a final reminder that the deadline for Trustee nominations is 5pm on Wednesday 18th May.

If you are planning on attending the AGM please remember to let us know by 26th May.

The AGM is taking place at The Houses of Parliament, Westminster on Thursday 9th June from 3.30pm to 5.00pm.

For more information and the RSVP forms please visit our website:

http://www.levelplayingfield.org.uk/Annual-General-Meeting.aspx

Level Playing Field Awards 2011

This is a further reminder that the deadline for nominating someone for a Level Playing Field award is 31st May 2011.

All information about the awards can be found by selecting the link below:

http://www.levelplayingfield.org.uk/Level-Playing-Field-Awards-2011.aspx

Football for Everyone Project

Level Playing Field was recently involved in a project in Wolverhampton - the Football for Everyone project.  We wanted to tell you a little bit more about this project and what better way to do it than in the words of the project manager herself - Miranda Walker - pictured left.  For those of you that attended our AGM last year at Wembley you may recall Miranda's presentation with the School Children involved in the project.

I’m always pleased to turn the calendar to Spring, where there’s finally a sunny picture and the promise of warmer days. But this year, it marks the end of my current work for Level Playing Field (LPF), formerly known as the National Association of Disabled Supporters. I’ve worked as the writer/researcher on their Football for Everyone project.  I’ve loved every aspect of the work, and after having such a ball (excuse the pun!) I’ll certainly miss it.

LPF is the only national registered charity for England and Wales representing disabled fans of all sports, together with their personal assistants and advocates. LPF worked in partnership with the Federation of Stadium Communities and Wolverhampton’s Deansfield Community School on the Football for Everyone project, which was funded by the Awards for All Big Lottery Fund.

Research shows that there are many well-being benefits to attending live football matches, and that doing so can simply be life changing for a disabled person. The principal aim of Football for Everyone was to explore this further by a) collecting the experiences (both positive and negative) of disabled fans already attending football, and b) connecting with newly disabled people to enable them to find out about both the benefits and practicalities of attending live games. A toolkit would then be produced to disseminate the findings and provide tips and guidance which would be helpful to both disabled fans and football clubs. This would include written case studies and a poster campaign which would highlight the importance of a level playing field for disabled fans. You can see these for yourself by visiting the LPF website at www.levelplayingfield.org.uk

In a series of classroom based sessions, I began work with two large groups of pupils from Deansfield School (aged 13-15 years), fifteen of whom went on to become core members of my writing/research team. The majority said that they had never interacted with a disabled person, and confidence to do so was lacking. Raising disability awareness was my first priority.

During the evaluation stage, it’s emerged that a key impact of the project has been the resulting change in attitude towards disability among the mainstream pupils involved, incorporating a new recognition of the barriers to inclusion that exist in society. Summing up her involvement at a recent event which launched our toolkit, fourteen year old Kelly said, “I used to be nervous about being with disabled people in case I said or did something wrong, and I didn’t know about barriers. But I feel fine about talking to people now, and I just want things to be right. I want to be part of making things fair.”

The core team of pupils learnt about research methods, then went out into the community to interview disabled people. We worked with two special educational settings, Penn Hall School (Wolverhampton) and the National Star College (Cheltenham). Interviews were also conducted at Wembley Stadium and Molineux Stadium (the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers), and the results were analysed and recorded in the form of case studies. National Star College students also went on to feature in our poster photo shoot.

Our toolkit included strong factual materials, but these didn’t quite capture the love and passion for live football which was evident from our interviews. This was addressed with the writing of a short audio play inspired by the stories we’d heard, in which a disabled fan transports the listener to a football stadium to experience the excitement of his first live game. This will shortly be available online (visit You Tube and search “Mean to You by Miranda Walker.”) We hope that this uplifting play - which also explores hidden disability - will help to encourage newly disabled supporters to attend their first match and to experience those well-being benefits.

I have some important facts and figures to work into my evaluation – over 50 school pupils took part in the project, 102 disabled people were interviewed and/or surveyed, 100 people heard a presentation given by the young research team at an LPF event at Wembley Stadium, 75 people attended our launch at Molineux Stadium, the toolkit will be disseminated to reach as many people as possible, and, as this is a pilot project, we hope to follow up with a bigger, more ambitious Football for Everyone scheme - funding permitting. But I’ve decided to give the last word in the evaluation to fifteen year old researcher Asner, who says, “Some disabled fans have had bad experiences, but they are so passionate about the game that nothing stops them from going back. But I feel that it’s important that disabled people and non-disabled people have the same equal chance to enjoy football. No one should ever miss out.” Well said, Asner!
Miranda Walker (scriptsbymiranda@tiscali.co.uk).

To access more information and download copies of the posters and all other materials produced as part of the project please visit out website by clicking here or pasting the link below into your browser.

http://www.levelplayingfield.org.uk/Wolverhampton-Football-for-Everyone-Project.aspx

Mean to You - An Audio Play by Miranda Walker which was created as part of the project is now available on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FjdOMrIedg 

To read a transcript of the play please visit our website using the above link. 

Fans Comments

We are pleased to announce that the Fans Comments are now working.  To leave a comment on a club please visit the clubs page on our website and select the relevant club.

http://www.levelplayingfield.org.uk/Clubs.aspx

To view some of the latest comments added to the site please use the links below:

Scunthorpe United v Reading FC - 12th April 2011

Blackburn Rovers FC v Liverpool FC - 5th Jan 2011

Liverpool FC v Manchester City FC - 11th April 2011 

Heart of Midlothian FC v Celtic FC - 11th May 2011

Nottingham Forest FC v Reading FC - 9th April 2011

And Finally keep in touch

LPF takes your views very seriously and we can and will contact clubs and organisers to make sure that where there are problems, these can be resolved - where things have gone well, we'd also like to give the appropriate words of praise as well. Your views, more than any, are so important to us.
There are a number of ways that you can get in touch with us and you can be assured that if you want us to treat something in confidence, we will respect that.

You can email us at info@levelplayingfield.org.uk, telephone us on 0845 230 6237, or write to us at the following address:
LPF, The Meridian, 4 Copthall House, Station Square, Coventry, CV1 2FL