Villa in the Community.

[dave.woodhall]

I was at the launch of the Villa in the Community initiative today, which amongst other things showed a lot of the work we do locally. To hear the head of Small Heath school, of all places, talk about the great work we do with them, to hear the head of the Premier League's community department say Villa set the standard in the field, to listen while a student with cerebral palsy from Wilson Stuart Academy said that all through regular school he was told he could do nothing but since working with Villa on a placement he knows he can do anything he wants and most of all to hear the CEO of Acorns say that their involvement with Villa means that they can handle 50% more cases than they used to was incredibly humbling and makes you realise that we do indeed support més qué un club.

[cheltenhamlion]

I know the CEO of Acorns through stuff we do for them. They are preposterously positive about the Villa.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Makes you feel even more proud of AVFC.
UTV!

[olaftab]

Fantastic. Well done all at Villa. The tickets for school was/is also a great initiative and I know from personal experience  that it has moved lot of inner city youngsters towards supporting Villa.

[olaftab]

Oh and  I have learned two new words/phrases. més qué un club and preposterously. Sometimes I do wish I had had decent school education rather than Nechells Secondary Modern School

[bertlambshank]

Well done all round.

[Legion]

TfS is excellent.

[saunders_heroes]

It's the Acorns relationship that does it for me. My niece received care from them all through her childhood and they were just incredible.

[peter w]

I think Villa should be striving to be the club for the Community. Its great to hear what we've been doing thus far, but because of how far clubs took their core support for granted at the expense of all non supporters in the 'Community' I still think there's a long way to go. Well done for the work so far.

[Ger Regan]

It's things like this, along with many many other examples of sheer decency and inherent class in its actions that will always make me proud to support the club, regardless of results. As the saying goes, form is temporary, class is permanent.

[Toronto Villa]

There's so much to be proud of off the pitch about our club. I was also very happy when we appointed Simone Farina to work in the community. A man who stands for so much more than the game, and more about the values about being a good and honest person.

[Concrete John]

I can only echo the sentiments above.  They may not get every football decision right, but things like this show you that those running our club have their hearts in the right place.

I'm almost reluctant to ask this, for fear or bringing the thread down, but was there any press/TV cameras there?  I can only imagine how big a deal Sky would be made of this had it been some other PL clubs.

[dave.woodhall]

I can only echo the sentiments above.  They may not get every football decision right, but things like this show you that those running our club have their hearts in the right place.

I'm almost reluctant to ask this, for fear or bringing the thread down, but was there any press/TV cameras there?  I can only imagine how big a deal Sky would be made of this had it been some other PL clubs.

There were a couple of local photographers.

[not3bad]

Just great to know that stuff like this goes on.  Well done Villa.

[PeterWithesShin]

From the OS yesterday.

Aston Villa today launched Villa in the Community, a new charity and the banner under which all of the Club's social responsibility and community work will fall under.

"We are very proud to be launching Villa in the Community in order to further our existing work in Birmingham and the surrounding areas," said Villa CEO Paul Faulkner.

"As a Club we take our role in the local community very seriously and the sense of engagement and involvement with the community runs right through the heart of the Club. Everyone associated with the Club is passionate about this work and they are passionate because they believe that it is the right thing to do.

"Villa in the Community is the umbrella under which all of our projects and initiatives will fall and it will allow us to fund more projects in the future. That means that we can do even more in the future to affect what goes on around us. I'm very proud of the work we have done and continue to do and I'm proud of what we can do in the future with Villa in the Community."

In becoming a charity, Villa in the Community aims to expand on the excellent work already undertaken by the Club by seeking new funding opportunities and opportunities to work with new partners who share our aim and passion to make a difference in the local community.

Villa in the Community will cover five broad areas: football and sports participation, education, health, youth, cohesion and inclusion and environment

In addressing these areas, the Club work with several partners on a variety of different community programs. These include the Premier League, the PFA, Sport England, Birmingham Public Health, West Midlands Police, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University and The Princes Trust, as well as a number of others.

For more information on Villa in the Community, please visit www.avfc.co.uk/community.