Preston North End have further demonstrated their fight against racism after teaming up with Lancashire County Council for the SCARF programme.
The SCARF programme, (Schools, Citizenship, Anti Racism Football) is an initiative to promote racial equality and has been successfully delivered at Frenchwood Primary, St Matthews CP, Harris Primary and English Martyr's CP School.
In total, eight sessions were delivered in the schools with the aim to:
• Promote a better understanding amongst young people of cultural diversity and different faiths throughout the city of Preston.
• Help young people to understand the effects of their actions and attitudes towards other people
• Enable young people to recognise the nature and consequences of discrimination, bullying and aggressive behaviour and how to challenge such behaviour appropriately.
• To develop communication, examination, participation and enquiry skills amongst young people
• Develop greater access to and participation in Preston North End Football Club, particularly amongst members of ethnic minority groups.
The project used sport and cross curricular activities to work with four schools, two with a high percentage of ethnic minority pupils and the other with no ethnic minority pupils.
All of the activities were aimed at addressing the issues of racial tension, racist activity and enable young people to develop self esteem, personal identity and group skills.
For the final session, the youngsters moved on to Deepdale and during the course of the day; the children were given a guided tour of the famous stadium before participating in a poster competition. The theme of the poster was to raise the profile of the SCARF programme.
PNE staff had the hard task of choosing the winners due to the superb standard of the posters but in the end managed to whittle it down to four entries. The winning teams all received complimentary tickets for the forthcoming home friendly against Everton at Deepdale.
In the afternoon the children took part in sporting activities at Moor Park and were split in different groups so they had a chance to mix with other schools. The activities were thoroughly enjoyed by all the children and even the teachers took part which made it more fun for the children.
