The Inclusion team at Preston North End Community and Education Trust are doing all they can to ensure those that access PL Kicks and other PNECET programmes are keeping active at home, through a series of daily challenges shared online.
Due to the current situation in England with regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, the vast majority of PNECET programmes have now been cancelled until further notice, including all Inclusion initiatives.
🏟️ Today's #PLKicks challenge for #PNECET participants comes courtesy of @alistair_white4!
— Preston North End Community and Education Trust (@pnecommunity) March 22, 2020
We want you to make a football pitch set-up at home, video yourself scoring a goal and show us! 😍
Who's feeling confident? 👊@PLCommunities #StayAtHomeChallenge #ActiveAtHome #pnefc pic.twitter.com/cunkT1T87A
While the sessions are off for now, participants can still remain very much engaged in their programmes via a virtual means.
Following the cancellation of programmes last week, the Inclusion team have since been releasing daily challenges via social media to help participants to remain active.
We joined the widely popular #StayAtHomeChallenge, which has seen a number of footballers worldwide involved by completing as many kick-ups as they can – albeit with a toilet roll, rather than a football.
Community Inclusion Officer James Stansfield produced a twist on this idea for the Trust’s first daily challenge, asking participants to finish the task by having their final kick-up land inside a bucket or something similar.
💪 Another day, another #PLKicks challenge!#PNECET Inclusion Manager Melissa Brown has mastered the press-up while balancing a toilet roll on her back... 😅
— Preston North End Community and Education Trust (@pnecommunity) March 23, 2020
But can you do it better, and how many can you do? 🤔@PLCommunities #ActiveAtHome #StayAtHomeChallenge #pnefc pic.twitter.com/6kprhaHNaU
A number of other members of Trust staff got involved, from Jack Mountain and Sagwati Malabi in the PL Primary Stars team, to Hannah White, also in the Inclusion team, who completed her kick-ups challenge with the toilet roll landing from a real height!
Community Inclusion Officer Alistair White has challenged participants to set-up their own football pitch inside their house and video themselves scoring a goal – providing it is a safe spot in the house to do so – no matter what is acting as their makeshift goalposts!
The most recent challenge has seen Inclusion Manager Melissa Brown catching a toilet roll on her back and keeping it balanced in that position while completing a press-up, and then catching the roll on her way back up.
Speaking of the daily challenges, Melissa said: “With everything that is going on at the moment and it being such a hard time for so many people, we want to continue to engage with our PL Kicks participants as much as possible. That is how the idea to have a daily challenge came about.
“Although it is difficult for us not to be putting on our usual sessions at the moment, these challenges do mean that the young people accessing PL Kicks and other PNECET programmes have challenges they can try for themselves at home.
“It is great fun for me and my colleagues to come up with these challenges and keep ourselves active at home as well.
📢 #PLKicks participants! We want you to #StayInWorkOut, so how about a challenge? 👇
— Preston North End Community and Education Trust (@pnecommunity) March 20, 2020
Community Inclusion Officer @JamesGStans has tried the #StayAtHomeChallenge; do you think you can do better? 📈
Send us your efforts using #PNECET! 🧻⚽️@PLCommunities #ActiveAtHome #pnefc pic.twitter.com/9lcGpHVy8x
“We’re looking forward to providing more daily challenges and engaging with as many participants as possible!”
The Inclusion team have also been checking in with older participants from other programmes such as Sporting Memories and walking football to discover their needs and offer their help at this challenging time.
You can find all of the Trust’s challenges so far on our social media channels, available here for Twitter, here for Facebook and here for Instagram.
And if you fancy having a go at one of the challenges, make sure you video yourself and share it online, tagging us on our respective channels and using the hashtag #PNECET!