AFC Foundation

AISA supports The Arsenal Foundation

As many supporters will be aware, Arsenal has a long history of working with nominated Charities of the Season, and over the years AISA has in a variety of ways supported those chosen charities which have included Teenage Cancer Trust, Tree House and Centrepoint.

The Club's work, both with charities and its community projects, has now been brought under the umbrella of The Arsenal Foundation, a fundraising and grant-making organisation, which is intended to help grow the reach and effect of the programmes that the Club supports to help an increasing number of young people across the globe fulfil their potential and help their communities thrive. The diverse work of Arsenal in the Community and the Club’s global partnership with Save the Children will be supported by the Foundation, as will other charity partner projects.

The Arsenal Foundation was launched in May 2012 during Arsenal’s 125th anniversary year to continue the Club's legacy of helping young people achieve their goals through a variety of projects, with education often at the heart of the initiatives. The Arsenal Foundation has partnered, for example, with Save the Children to deliver projects both locally in north London and overseas in China to give the poorest children the best chance of a better start in life.
Even in its earliest days, Arsenal wanted to serve its community, always aware of the crowd it drew and how it could be used to positive effect. Arsenal’s early matchday programme cards were sold for a penny to raise money for Homes for Working Boys in Beresford Street, Woolwich when the Club was rooted in south London. The good work continued when the Club moved north with the local hospital being one of the first to benefit from the Club’s relocation.

Arsenal’s good work in its community has remained constant throughout its history and 125 years on, the main focus of The Arsenal Foundation will be to raise funds to help reach even more young people become the best they can be. In Islington, the Club has set up two Families & Schools Together programmes in local schools – an initiative that helps to give parents the skills and confidence they need to better support and take a more active role in their children’s education. In China, meanwhile, the Club has made a donation of £300,000 to improve the quality of education for disadvantaged children aged six to 15, in some of Beijing’s most under-resourced schools.

More local community projects are set to benefit from The Foundation’s work too. In May 2012, Carl Jenkinson visited a newly refurbished pitch on the Suffolk Estate in Hackney, an area that has been blighted by antisocial behaviour. Made possible thanks to a donation from The Arsenal Foundation and other partners, the site has been transformed with old metal goals and basketball posts being removed to accommodate new floodlights and a brick wall at the back of the pitch.

Throughout the Club’s global community, the grants made by The Arsenal Foundation to deliver a variety of projects will help even more young people reach their potential.

For further information on The Arsenal Foundation, please follow the links below:
ArsenalFoundationBrochure.pdf
www.arsenal.com/thearsenalfoundation

AISA will continue to support the Club's charitable and community projects. If any members have any fundraising suggestions, please email Lois Langton at lois.langton@aisa.org