“I loved representing CITC:” City in the Community coach visits Chicago | OneFootball

One of City in the Community’s coaches visited Chicago as part of Manchester City’s Trophy Tour, to deliver coach education courses to local young people.

The week, led by Early Years Officer, Carl Burke, saw young coaches from Chicago take part in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses, former player meet and greets and picture opportunities with the Club’s trophies.  CITC sat down with Carl to speak about his experience on the trip.  What was it like going over to Chicago with CITC?   Going to Chicago was a fun experience. To be able to visit a new place and meet new people from different walks of life made it an interesting experience.

Working with people from Manchester City Football Club, New York City Football Club, and other organisations was really fun and a great opportunity to network.   What did you do while you were in Chicago?    On day one, we delivered a CPD Coach Education Course to 21 coaches who travelled from various communities within Chicago to Haas Park for a full day of training.

This included some practical and theory-based modules. During the training course we also had the trophies brought along to allow opportunities for the participants to get their photo taken.

As well as this, Joe Henry who oversees several programmes at Haas Park which CITC funded a community pitch at in October 2012, was retiring.

To celebrate his retirement, he was gifted a Manchester City shirt signed by Erling Haaland as a thank you for his commitment to the community, and his work in building a relationship between MCFC, CITC, and Haas Park.

The following day we hosted a fan watch along, inviting over 400 Manchester City fans to watch the Manchester Derby, where we also delivered some fun football activities for any children that attended.

Away from working commitments we also had time to explore the city, and visited Lake Michigan, tried the famous ‘Deep Dish’ pizzas, and explored the festive markets too.   Why do you think trips like this are important for the participants?   Trips like this are really beneficial as it’s a unique opportunity to learn from the coaches who deliver the course and to network with other coaches from other communities.

They also provide special and memorable experiences like seeing the Premier League trophy in person, as well as meeting former players, in this case, Shaun Wright-Phillips.   How would you sum up your experience in Chicago?   Overall, it was an amazing experience. I loved being given the privilege of representing CITC and MCFC.

It was brilliant to be able to visit a new place, experience a different culture, and to meet so many friendly and open-minded participants who wanted to learn and made us feel very welcome.

City in the Community empowers healthier lives with city youth through football.

To find out more, visit www.mancity.com/citc or follow @citcmancity.