Barnet FC operates a Football in the Community scheme, backed by the Professional Footballers' Association and within FA guidelines on a self - funding, not for profit, basis.

The Football in the Community scheme can operate on many levels within the area.. By combining the power of our community and the power of Sport, with the backing of a professional football club, gives us a powerful platform from which to work.

Delivering top quality coaching within the community improves not only local grass roots football but also identifies local footballing talent, children that could benefit from development coaching or could be directed towards our future Centre of Excellence. We only have to look towards Ismail Yakubu, a product of our Centre of Excellence, to see how worthwhile that can be.

Our work takes us to all corners of the borough and into Harrow. We work with schools, youth clubs, youth services, the Police and local youth football teams, anyone and everyone that can help make a difference to the lives of the people in our community. Importantly we use football as a vehicle to help deliver important social messages and to reinforce a positive learning culture. We work with mainstream students and disaffected learners using tried and tested initiatives.

We are hoping to run a pilot scheme to tackle anti-social behaviour by putting on evening courses to give our young people something to do, subject to funding!

Our work is worthwhile and important to the community and, by working with key partners, we can identify and address our community needs and in doing so we can tackle local issues and problems and provide local solutions. Community Partnerships can truly make a difference.

Through our work, the scheme strengthens the foundations of the club within the community and helps to produce 'Fans of the Future'.

Barnet Football in the Community is looking for volunteers to help the scheme grow and in turn offer wider benefits to our community. So whether it's administration, marketing, writing stories for our section of the website, IT, or as a volunteer coach, why not drop an email to jmatthewson@barnetfc.com and let us know what you could do to make a difference!

We are also actively looking for business sponsorship to help fund our work, so if you work for or own a company keen to develop a community partnership with Barnet FC's Football in the Community Scheme, a partnership that would not only strengthening our community involvement but could be a true benefit to the community at large, please get in touch.

Barnet FC In the Community, Big Enough to Matter, Small enough to Care!