SPARTANS COMMUNITY FOOTBALL ACADEMY

That this House congratulates Spartans Community Football Academy in North Edinburgh on winning the Innovative Youth Work Award at the National Youth Worker of the Year Awards 2017; notes that the dedicated team at Spartans successfully use football to develop skills, build confidence, improve health and inspire young people of all ages and abilities to think differently about themselves; recognises that Spartans runs a range of successful programmes, including Spartans Connections, an inclusive pan-disability team, Foot TEA, where primary school children enjoy a hot meal as well as a game and the Street Fit-Baw outreach project that has helped reduce crime rates in the area; and believes that Spartans is an inspiring example of a social enterprise making a difference to lives, as well as representing community sport at its best.