Football and the Community (OOD)

The project sought to examine how Brighton and Hove Albion FC, and its charitable trust, Albion In The Community, can work with local education partners to contribute to the creation of structures and services that might enable communities to become more resourced, healthy and productive, and their members to become more involved, engaged and powerful.

The project organised a series of events (seminars and workshops) through which the partnership could explore ways in which community education and sport partnerships can build participation, self-reliance and resilience at the local level.

Neighbourliness is at the core of this work. It is fundamentally about fostering reciprocity (between community and HE, and between different parts of the local community), mutual respect (that all partners have an equal role to play in developing a strong, resilient community) and improving understanding about how each of the partners contributes to the overall aims outlined above. We therefore see the fostering of active and inclusive communities and citizenship as central to generating a reflexive understanding of what it is to be a good neighbour.

Central to the project are existing and emerging collaborations between a variety of university and community partners. The former includes those involved in: research and HE teaching provision; local and regional social and economic engagement; continuing education; community, culture, sport and spatial research; and expertise in built environment, events management, arts and creativity. The latter includes practitioners and experts in: secondary and post-compulsory education and training; health education; social engagement and inclusion; project management; and access to, and use of, the community stadium as a venue for research and engagement activities.