Saracens Foundation | Sporting Roots Project

Sporting Roots is our refugee project supporting refugees and asylum seekers temporarily housed in local hotels. Sporting Roots is supported by lead project partner SBHL and further supported by Islamic Relief UK.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Foundation runs football sessions at StoneX Stadium for our participants, encouraging them to get outside, get active and meet other residents of the hotels. For many of our participants, these football sessions are the only time that residents of the hotels are able to get active outside as the only outdoor space within the hotel properties are the car parks. For many residents, these football sessions are the highlight of their weeks, offering them fun, activity, competition, and some normalcy.

In the last few weeks, our football sessions have grown exponentially, and we now see over 50 people regularly attending!

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

We are in desperate need of more football boots, trainers and sports kit! Most of our participants only have the clothes on their back, so when they come to sessions, they play barefoot or in clothing that’s not appropriate for the game.

We currently have a number of football boots and trainers that participants can borrow, but we need more so that participants don’t have to swap with each other mid-session!

If you have some football boots, trainers, or sportswear which is still good to be used but you no longer need, we would love to take it off your hands for our participants!

To donate any kit, trainers, or boots; or to find out more about the project, please email: foundationinfo@Saracens.net.