Harvey Barnes & Steve Walsh Get Festive At Multigenerational Social Café
- Leicester City Academy graduate Harvey Barnes and Club Ambassador Steve Walsh got involved in a number of arts and crafts workshops themed around Christmas
- Each workshop - led by secondary school pupils – featured primary school students and older participants
- Three Leicester City in the Community projects join together for social café event held at Community Hub
- The café aims to tackle social isolation and improve communication and confidence skills
The event brought together participants from Premier League Primary Stars (primary school pupils), Premier League Inspires (secondary school pupils) and Then, Now and Forever (older participants) programmes.
The social café is a social action event - which has big interest from the Premier League and partner, the #iwill campaign – aims to improve vital life skills and well-being for both young people and communities.
LCitC put on a number of workshops including mask and basket making, as well as an inspiring question and answer session, which was led by Glenfield Primary School Young Leaders
After getting involved in decorating gingerbread biscuits and showing his crafting skills at the Community Hub, winger Barnes, 22, said: “It’s lovely, especially around this time of year. You can see that the kids are all really happy.
“A lot of them have grown up in Leicester and are Leicester City supporters, so for them, it means a lot to have a player come in. Obviously, it’s lovely to see the community around here.
“You’ve got the young kids and the older people here and it’s great to be involved. The work here is massive. It brings everyone together.
“I don’t know if my gingerbread biscuit was edible, but I gave it a go! The kids were helping me out, and it’s great to get involved.”
Meanwhile, Foxes legend Walsh highlighted the importance of inclusiveness, and said: “It’s wonderful that Leicester City now are in the community. I’m an ambassador for the Club and I’ve started to do a lot more work in schools and it’s fantastic.
“This inclusion, whether you’re young or old, it doesn’t matter who you are. It’s great that there’s opportunities now, and it’s opening a lot of doors to a lot of people. Leicester’s becoming a really wonderful place to be.
“Inclusiveness is vital for the next generation, as well as the young and the old. It’s great to see people with smiles on their faces.”
For Leicester City in the Community, this event highlights a great example of the direction the charitable element of The Club wants to head in.
Bringing together multiple projects and offering participants further pathways at LCitC is a part of the new four year strategy set out earlier this year during a rebrand.
To find out more about any one of Premier League Primary Stars, Inspires or Then, Now and Forever, click here.