Argyle Community Trust ARGYLE Community Trust was delighted to welcome the Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) campaign team to Home Park, working with Plymouth Argyle Football Club to deliver anti-racism workshops to young people from local primary schools.
High Street Primary, Mayflower Academy and Montpelier Primary were the three primary schools who brought with them over 90 young people to the educational event. Once the young people had arrived, they had an introduction to the day followed by a quick warm-up to wake everyone up.
Throughout the morning and running till lunchtime were three different workshops that the young people would take part in. Each workshop hosted one school and after 45 minutes, the schools rotated to a new workshop.
The first of the workshops available on the day was a SRtRC programme run by Education Worker Richard Offiong. During the workshop, Richard explored stereotypes with the young people and discussed the dangers of stereotyping. Richard’s experienced approach to leading discussions and the young people’s honest engagement were the two factors which aided the result of a positive workshop.
The second workshop which was on offer was, again, run by a SRtRC Education Worker Rosie Ferries. Rosie led a workshop which helped young people define racism, how someone can suffer racism and through a game of true or false helped crack some myths regarding racism in everyday life. Rosie, an experienced education worker, led an insightful discussion through her brilliant use of questioning.
The third and final workshop on offer was ground tours, which were led by the staff from Argyle Community Trust. The young people were shown around each stand of the ground and learnt about the history of Plymouth and the stadium. They had the chance to sit in the Director’s seats, explore the match-day family zone and walk pitch-side.
As the final workshops finished, it was now time for the children to have their lunch and discuss with their peers the morning workshops they had taken part in. After lunch, the young people further developed their understanding of racism by watching the 22-minute Show Racism the Red Card educational film, which provides an excellent introduction to the subject of racism.
The short film includes sporting personalities such as Ryan Giggs, Thierry Henry, Gabby Logan and Rachel Yankey, as well as personal accounts of racism from young people. It helped the young people develop their own questions which they would be able to put forward to the special guests during the Q&A session.
After the educational film, it was time for the young people to put their questions forward to the panel. On the panel were Rosie Ferries, who was joined by Jill Palmer, the Community and Cohesion Coordinator for Plymouth City Council. Jason Chapman, Football Development Manager at Argyle Community Trust, also sat on the panel, along with former Newcastle and Carlisle player, and also SRtRC Education Worker, Richard Offiong.
Each panel member contributed to answering the questions which were put forward by the young people. Jason Chapman and Richard Offiong both gave brilliant examples of how racism can operate in football at different levels and the impact it can have.
Jill Palmer gave a very insightful approach when answering questions while relating back to Plymouth and the work the council do. Once the Q&A had finished the panel picked the best three questions that were asked and prizes were given out. The winner of the best question on the day was a pupil from Montpelier Primary who won a Plymouth Argyle goody bag which included match tickets, the question asked was ‘Can racism happen to people of the same colour?’
