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Melbourne City’s charity, City in the Community (CITC), has donated new football goals to Barton Primary School in Cranbourne West as part of the club’s Healthy Goals initiative.

The program encourages more young people to play football to promote physical health and gain important social, emotional and cognitive skills that will help their overall development and well-being.

There are three core initiatives that the CITC are focusing on this year:

• Supporting local schools with facility improvements to ensure more young people can access our free football programming from CITC.
• Supporting community groups and clubs with equipment upgrades and free football programming from CITC.
• Working with local artists to commemorate art and football projects, celebrating community pride, and cultural heritage while creating a visually appealing environment for the local community.

This most recent contribution towards Barton Primary School aligns with the first core initiative to support local schools, with Melbourne City players Laura Hughes and Alessandro Lopane attending to talk to the kids.

For the past three years, CITC has been involved with the Cranbourne West Primary School taking part in initiatives such as walking football, inviting students to become player mascots as well as player visits.

CITC’s Community Program Lead, Stephen Frantzeskakis talked about their recent contribution and how the club are continuing to create a positive impact on the community.

“I think it’s fantastic that we’re able to continue supporting Barton Primary School and its students through the Healthy Goals initiative, especially given their strong interest and ongoing passion for football,” he said in a media release on the club’s website,” he said via club release statement.

“We’ve been working with Barton Primary School for a number of years now and have also recently run our respectful relationships program with Grade 5 and 6 students.

“To have strong role models like Ale and Laura come down to speak to students about topics like respect and resilience is terrific, and it’s great to be able to extend our partnership through the donation of new goals as well.”

Barton Primary School Principal, Benjamin Vevers talked about the school’s partnership with Melbourne City and how it’s helping its students.

“Given many of our students were born or have parents and families from other countries, the school is truly passionate about the world game and having new goals means our kids get to fully experience a quality soccer match every recess and lunch,” he said via press release.

“It was a memorable experience that may inspire some of our students to reach for the stars with football, maybe even the Brisbane Olympics!

“Our students are learning to be more respectful of each other during competitive sport, girls are becoming more active during breaks playing soccer, and students are super excited each week for the program.”

It’s important to have these types of initiatives to allow clubs and their players to connect with their local community. We’ve seen these gestures throughout the years from the A-League clubs by continuing to show their commitment to support their local community whether that’s giving back through donations or providing programs to steer young people in the right direction.