Sky Bet EFL Building Foundations Fund to provide Birmingham City community hub | OneFootball

The Sky Bet EFL Building Foundations Fund (BFF) has been established as part of the title rights extension agreed between the EFL and Sky Bet

Birmingham City Foundation are working in conjunction with Birmingham Children's Trust, and its associated charity BFriends, to develop a community hub.

This hub will provide a support network and a wide-ranging selection of activities for care leavers, young adults and their family groups - and this aims to confront problems relating to inequality in many areas - including opportunity, health, education, life skills, recreation, social integration and participation.

This work should also allow these people to make a better transition into independence, with the Birmingham-based charities collaborating to help them make this step.

The £10,000 that has been raised will provide 10 FA Level 1 coaching qualification courses to participants to support disadvantaged and underrepresented ethnic minorities within the local community.

These courses will be provided to try and create a more diverse workforce in the Birmingham area.

This has all been made possible by the The Sky Bet EFL Building Foundations Fund.

The Sky Bet EFL Building Foundations Fund (BFF) has been established as part of the new title rights extension agreed between the EFL and Sky Bet earlier in 2023.

A panel of experts from the EFL, Sky Bet and the EFL Trust select bids from the 72 clubs against eligibility criteria each season with £1 million allocated to the BFF in each of the six seasons covered by the agreement.

For season one – 2023/24 – the Fund made an initial £10,000 available to every club with the residual amount awarded on a competitive basis. In each of the following seasons, clubs will be able to bid for funding – with grants ranging in size from £5,000 to £100,000. Successful applicants will have to target activity towards programmes that engage with adults (over 18s).

The five-figure sum issued to Birmingham City in this instance will also be used to fund football-specific facilities and equipment, including balls, bibs and cones. English courses will run alongside this to aid those who aren't fully fluent in the language, which will also go some way in helping people to integrate and adapt to life in the local area.

This is just one of many initiatives that the Birmingham City Foundation have run since its formation in September 2000.

The Foundation has expanded considerably since it was founded, originally delivering football activities, but now offering a range of programmes, events and activities to help those in need.

Their alliance with Birmingham Children's Trust and BFriends looks set to richly benefit underserved ethnic minorities and provide a hub that will help countless people in the local community.

BFriends, which was established in September 2021, focuses on supporting care leavers and children who are currently in care.

Aiming to give children in care the same opportunities as those who aren't, their hard work is helping to minimise inequality and they have been able to do this by operating in unison with the community, city partners, businesses and other charities.