Premier League Kicks participants help spruce up local park with litter pick at recent session

Participants attending the weekly Premier League Kicks session within Grove Park were tasked with tidying up the local area, as part of a recent Social Action project.

With a community day taking place within the park, the local area needed a bit of a sprucing up, ahead of the event.

The PL Kicks programme creates opportunities for young people who are at risk of anti-social behaviour, youth violence and/or from high-need areas to regularly engage in football, sport, mentoring and personal development opportunities.

The weekly Grove Park session, which has been up and running for over a year, is part of the Foundation’s PL Kicks programme and is free for young people to attend, delivered in partnership with the People Focused Group (PFG) alongside additional funding from the City of Doncaster Council, offering wider youth led support.

Participants split into small teams, with their bags and litter picks in check, as they scoured the park for discarded rubbish, as part of their clean up activity.

During their litter pick, help also came from Doncaster Rovers Football Club mascot, Donny Dog, who was on hand to collect rubbish alongside those participating, spurring them on to collect as much as they could. 

Sports Development Officer, Mark Cooper, who heads up the PL Kicks programme, spoke of how proud he was of the group: “It’s incredible to see the group of lads rally together to support each other in tidying the park up. 

“We were tasked with helping support with the local community day, so with us using the facilities, both outside and within the Better You building, we wanted to make sure we were giving something back to the local community.

“The Kicks sessions aren’t just about kicking a football about in their local park, we want to provide a variety of skills and opportunities alongside the sessions we make available.

“These lads turn up to play football every week, so to see them actively helping with the litter pick, it’s fantastic. They are a credit to the local community and they did it with a smile on their face.”

Stuart Marshall, Manager at Better You also said: “We can’t praise the boys enough, they’ve been all around the park, cleared up all the rubbish they could find.

“They’ve come down here to play football, but given up their time to work together to get the area looking great again.

“We hope the residents in the vicinity have taken note and seen the hard work the group have put in. Credit to them, we can’t thank the lads enough.”

Make sure to take a look at our Doncaster Kicks Facebook page, to find out about all the FREE local football sessions delivered each week within the community, across Doncaster.

For more information, you can contact mark.cooper@clubdoncasterfoundation.co.uk.