WHAT THE PRESS SAY
Click on the links below to read some of the press coverage we have had.
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South Nottingham College's Balls To Poverty project sees students distribute footballs and rugby balls to deprived communities in South Africa, and provide coaching to thousands of children.
Joe Sargison, director of athlete performance programmes at the college, was inspired to start Balls To Poverty after visiting Soweto in Johannesburg in 2004, when he was an academy coach at Nottingham Forest.
He saw some children playing football and bought them a ball.
"I kicked it into the township and was amazed at the number of kids that came flying out of huts and down streets to get involved. It was an image that hit me pretty hard," he said.
Nottingham Evening Post (This Is Nottingham)
The Balls to Poverty project with Joe Sargison as founder has won the Dave Bullas Innovation Award from Rushcliffe Borough Council.
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Nottingham Forest make Balls To Poverty their Official Charity for Next Season - 17th June 2009
Nottingham Forest have chosen South Nottingham College's Balls To Poverty project as their official charity for next season. The club hope to raise £100,000 for the project, which sees students distribute sporting equipment to deprived communities in South Africa. Coaching clinics in football and rugby are also run in townships and in primary schools and special schools across Notts. The project aims to inspire youngsters through sport and create role models out of the students.
Founder of Balls To Poverty is Joe Sargison, the director of the athlete performance programme at South Nottingham College.
He said: "We feel very honoured to have been selected by the club for the development of our charity. We have had a very strong relationship with Nottingham Forest since the start of the project."
Mr Sargison believes the project is going to go from strength to strength. The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) backed the project for the first time this year. And the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 may see the project grow further as the nation is gripped by football fever.
Nottingham Forest's chief executive Mark Arthur said: "We are proud of the fantastic relationship we have with South Nottingham College.
"By making Balls to Poverty our nominated charity for the 2009-10 season, we can really make a difference to communities both in Nottingham and further afield." Nottingham Forest defender Julian Bennett toured with the party this year. He helped motivate players and supervised coaching sessions which were delivered by students in townships in Cape Town.
Rugby adding new dimension to Balls To Poverty (Nottingham Evening Post) - 24th April 2009
RUGBY is adding a fresh dimension to the Balls To Poverty programme, which uses coaching skills and new sports equipment to help change lives in poor townships.
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The Essence of Balls To Poverty (Nottingham Evening Post) - 23rd April 2009
HUNDREDS of South Africans, young and old, wait patiently at a sports ground in Delft Township. Many of the children play in bare feet and others turn out in torn clothes. All of them are ecstatic when their football coaches emerge in South Nottingham College kits and gather feverishly around the students.
This is the essence of Balls To Poverty.
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Students battle heat in footsteps of Mandela (Nottingham Evening Post) - 21st April 2009
South Nottingham College's Balls To Poverty programme has helped thousands of people in South Africa's urban townships. Students have also visited youngsters in rural Transkei and the birthplace of Nelson Mandela to see the poverty they face. Education Correspondent MICHAEL GREENWELL reports
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Unity Says Balls to Poverty - 22nd March 2009
This year, Balls To Poverty has been working with Nottingham's Unity programme. Unity aims to break down disputes among young people from St Ann's, Radford and The Meadows – as well as other areas.
So far, the project has used football to bring the groups together but now youngsters are also gaining education, training and employment. David Bofo, 20, of St Ann's, and Ashley Williams, 19, of Radford, went to South Africa as part of the Balls To Poverty group.
Morris Samuels, founder of Unity, believes Balls To Poverty is of huge benefit to young people, helping them to broaden their horizons and develop.
He said: "When Mandela was released I think one of the first things he said was 'we've got to forgive'. We need to look at it because we have young people in Nottingham who are arguing and fighting over virtually nothing.
"What was thought-provoking at Robben Island was how they moved political prisoners out of their communities and left them in such an isolated area."
This is Nottingham - 24th November 2008
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/College-s-retail-training-praised/article-497056-detail/article.html
South Nottingham College - 22nd November 2008
College Visit For Sport MP
Sport Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe MP visited South Nottingham College on Monday 21 January to talk to staff and students about their innovative Balls to Poverty project.
Mr Sutcliffe met College management including Principal Malcolm Cowgill and project Co-ordinator Joe Sargison before moving to Nottingham Forest’s Academy to talk with students in the College’s Athlete Performance Programme and watch them train. Chief Executives from some of the College’s sporting partners, Nottingham Forest (Mark Arthur), Nottingham Rugby, (Glen Delaney) were also in attendance. The focus of the visit was to see how students can develop into regional role models for aspiring young people by engaging in UK-based sports initiatives.
The Balls to Poverty project has been running since 2005 and involves a squad of football students travelling to South Africa to play in a prestigious youth cup tournament and handing out footballs to deprived township children. Twenty-six College students will travel to Johannesburg and Soweto in March to deliver 8000 footballs as part of the 2008 tour.
With over 10,000 balls already distributed and a target of 35,000 anticipated by 2010, the project has grown considerably receiving national acclaim and has attracted the attention of ministers and high profile backers including Unite the Union, Nottingham Forest and The Donald Woods Foundation. Balls to Poverty was honoured at the Association of College’s national conference in November picking up a Beacon award in the ‘Centre for Excellence in Leadership Award for Innovation in Curriculum Leadership Development’ category.
Joe Sargison, Director of the Athlete Performance Programme, said: “Mr Sutcliffe’s visit says a lot about the profile of the project and the good work we are trying to do. Although Balls to Poverty is quite well known locally, we need to get more people engaged and more sponsors on board as we raise our own targets year on year. It is important that a national Minister can see what good role models these students are becoming and the influence this will have in their communities long after they have left College.”
This is Nottingham – 14th November 2008
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Balls-Poverty-nationalarticle-475159-details/article.html
South Nottingham College - 28th September 2008
http://www.snc.ac.uk/ballstopoverty/balls2008.pdf
This is Nottingham – 31th October 2008
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Students-say-Balls-Poverty/article-439579-detail/article.html
This is Nottingham – 30th September 2008
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/South-Nottingham-College-kick-new-season/article-362032-detail/article.html
United Magazine - 2nd June 2008
www.uniteharrogate.org.uk/United%20Magazine.pdf
Daily Mirror - 30th April 2008
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/hopenothate/2008/04/30/pm-backs-the-mirror-s-message-to-kick-out-bigotry-115875-20400326/
South Nottingham College - 26th February 2008
Students Prepare for Africa....in Cotgrave!
South Nottingham College football students who are travelling to South Africa next month on the annual Balls to Poverty tour had a trial run coaching 250 primary school children from Candleby Lane School in Cotgrave today (Tues 26 Feb).
The 28 students put the children through their paces in a series of drills and skill competitions. The sessions mimic the sort of coaching activities the students will deliver in South Africa.
The College students leave for South Africa on 12 March aiming to deliver 8000 footballs to youngsters in deprived Cape Town townships. They will also take part in an African U19 football tournament, the Premier Cup.
Hucknall Dispatch – 15th February 2008
http://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/local-sport-news/Balls-to-poverty.3783454.jp
This is Nottingham - 31st Jan 2008
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/College-s-retail-training-praised/article-497056-detail/article.html
South Nottingham College - 26th October 2007
Balls To Poverty Rugby Off To A Flyer!
The launch for the first ever Balls To Poverty rugby project in association with Nottingham Rugby Club took place prior to Nottingham Rugby Club's home match with The Pertemp Bees last Friday. The project is an extension of South Nottingham College's successful football project that has seen over 40 students distribute 10,000 footballs in the last 3 years. The aim is to take students from the College's new Rugby Performance Programme together with players from Nottingham Rugby Club's Youth Academy to coach 2,000 youngsters and distribute 2,000 rugby balls across deprived township areas of Cape Town. A substantial amount of money was raised on the night and fund-raising activities have already begun in preparation for reaching the desired £10,000 target.
The Guardian - 20th March 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/mar/20/furthereducation
Times Educational Supplement - 26th May 2006
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2240935
Unite the Union – 3rd March 2006
http://www.epolitix.com/stakeholder-websites/press-releases/press-release-details/newsarticle/balls-to-poverty-students-to-visit-london///sites/unite-amicus-section/
P R Newswire – 6th December 2005
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/release?id=159873
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