LFC Foundation hosts summer activity day at the Academy
LFC Foundation welcomed more than 50 young participants and their families to the Respect 4 All summer activity day at the LFC Academy last week.
The event was organised to raise awareness of the Respect 4 All inclusion project, which provides free weekly multi-sports and physical activity sessions for children and young people with complex and additional needs, and encourage more local people to attend the charity’s regular sessions.
Dawn Georgeson from the LFC Academy said: “Our Respect 4 All programme is massively successful and has been going for 10 years now, and this year we intend to reach out to even more people and welcome new faces to our accessible sports sessions.”
After the group warm-up, all attendees were introduced to the different accessible sports, with taster sessions of football, boccia, goalball, wheelchair football and multi-sports in the state-of-the-art facility’s sports hall.
Liverpool U18s goalkeeper Daniel Atherton also joined in the fun and received an enthusiastic response from the young Reds fans.
Joanne Taylor, who attended the event with her son Dan, who has autism, said: “Today has been brilliant; Dan has loved taking part in all the different activities.
“We will definitely be coming along to the weekly sessions at Anfield Sports and Community Centre, which means that he can mix with other kids on a regular basis and keep active in a safe environment.”
The Respect 4 All programme is specifically for young people with a range of needs, including but not restricted to: physical impairment, visual impairment, learning difficulties, autism and wheelchair users.
However, the summer activity day encouraged families to come along together, which meant that siblings and parents could participate in the accessible activities.
LFC Foundation’s Respect 4 All programme is funded by the Premier League and the BT Disability Fund and aims to remove potential barriers regarding accessibility to sport for disabled people and improve inclusion between people with and without disabilities.
The club charity’s FA-qualified coaching team runs 16 Respect 4 All sessions each week, at Anfield Sports and Community Centre and at Woodchurch High School in Birkenhead.
For more information, click here.