Pitchside presentation
The London Football Award’s Community Project of the Year was officially presented to the Coping Through Football group at half time during Leyton Orient’s match against Doncaster Rovers on 14th April.
Project Coordinator Sonia Smith was delighted to receive the trophy from O’s No. 10 David Mooney. She was joined on the pitch by a number of service users alongside Barbara Armstrong of NELFT, Howard Gould from Leyton Orient Trust and Jo McKenzie and Katherine Hegarty from London Playing Fields Foundation.
Sonia said; “We were really pleased that the project was recognised at the London Football Awards in March and it is great that we are able to come here today to share the award with the local community. Coping Through Football is about much more than delivering a football session, it’s about providing a welcoming and supportive environment in which participants can exercise, make friends and also access any additional services they may need from NELFT, LOT or LPFF.”
An article in the matchday programme noted that London Playing Fields Foundation celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. Jo McKenzie said: “LPFF’s relationship with LOT began in 1989 when the football club used the Foundation’s Douglas Eyre Sports Centre in Walthamstow as its training centre, Centre of Excellence and hub for its community activities. Since then we have worked on a number of projects together including creating a women’s football club, delivering a vibrant mini soccer primary schools programme, organising holiday and after school coaching camps and of course delivering our fantastic Coping Through Football project in Waltham Forest and neighbouring boroughs. Through the power of partnership working LPFF and LOT have been able to demonstrate that sport can make people healthier, provide routes into employment and training, bring communities together and encourage young people to join teams rather than gangs.”
Match facts:
Leyton Orient 0 – 1 Doncaster Rovers
Attendance 4,410
