Charity Stowmarket Football Teams Create Community Spirit As Survey Reveals Striking Attitudes To Sport

published on 2 Jul 2014

• Only 59 per cent of East Englanders  take part in sports / exercise at least once a week reveals a new YouGov survey.
• But 86 per cent of adults agreed that regular exercise is important, while 80 per cent felt that vulnerable people would benefit from taking up exercise

Today The Salvation Army is 149 not out… and is using sport to help vulnerable people suffering from addiction problems and homelessness

There is a wealth of sport on the TV this weekend with the Wimbledon Finals, World Cup quarter finals and the British Grand Prix, but for many of us it’s as close as we come to taking any form of exercise.

In a YouGov survey commissioned by The Salvation Army, 81 per cent of adults in the East of England said they watch sport on the TV, but  53 per cent admitted that they exercise less than once a week, and 27 per cent said that they don’t do any exercise or sports at all. Nevertheless, a whopping 86 per cent of the people of the East of England who took part in the anonymous poll thought that taking part in sport/ exercise is important.

The Salvation Army, which today celebrates 149 years since it was founded by General William Booth, believes sport is a powerful tool in helping people recover from addiction problems and homelessness. That’s a sentiment agreed by our respondents with 81 per cent seeing the benefit of regular sport and exercise for vulnerable people.

The Salvation Army believes that sport is a powerful tool in helping people recover from addiction problems and homelessness. That’s a sentiment agreed by three quarters of our respondents as  80 per cent saw the benefit of regular sport and exercise for vulnerable people.

The Church and charity has a number of programmes to get people involved in sport, including our Partnership Trophy, a football tournament for homeless men and women, summer camps, weekly football matches, hill walking, badminton, tennis and many more.

The Salvation Army’s church in Stowmarket, Stowmarket corps, runs a football club for people in the community with a range of teams and players on their books from the under eights to the under 11s and men’s teams. The first team was started in 1988 by Adrian Moye, 47, of Orwell Road, Stowmarket.  In 1996 they incorporated a reserve side and then in 2011 they started a youth team and it grew from there and they now compete in the local football league and the number of players continues to increase so that they now have more than 70 children on their rolls. They also run Saturday taster sessions which attract about 15 children, as well as between 35 to 40 men registered.

Adrian said: “We saw the benefits that football can bring to a community in creating community spirit and we wanted to compete in a proper league in encouraging this.
“It’s great to see the youngsters develop and grow in confidence while learning about team work.”

Major Beverley Robilliard, corps officer (church leader) at Stowmarket corps, said: “Our football teams have grown and grown and it is great to see children learning key life skills through sport. Sport gives people confidence, helps tackle stress, brings people into their community as well as keeping people healthy.

“Because of the benefits to our physical and mental health we know that the government recommends that we exercise at least a couple of times a week. But sadly, the reality is that many of us don’t exercise enough, myself included.”