West Ham United scooped the Community Project of the Year award at the 2016 London Football Awards on Thursday.
The West Ham United Foundation earned the prestigious title for hosting the Moore Family Foundation, the Club’s Principal Charity, established in memory of the late, great Bobby Moore in October 2014.
Presented by England manager Roy Hodgson, the award for the Hammers’ much-celebrated outreach work in east London, Essex and beyond capped a successful night for the Club, with the mercurial Dimitri Payet named Premier League player of the year.
Vice-Chairman Karren Brady said: “This is fantastic recognition of the life-changing work the Club is doing in our community. Bobby was a local boy and we take enormous pride in supporting local people.
“The Moore Family Foundation, our Principal Club Charity, is a brilliant example of football legacy in action, with thousands of students benefitting from this ambitious, forward-thinking project.
“We started this back in 2014 to honour Bobby's memory in the way we at West Ham know best. To reach out to the local people who need us most. And the 16,000 Year 6 pupils who will engage with the programme is but a fraction of our community footprint, with in excess of 2,000,000 opportunities created for young people and adults to date.
“Our patron Roberta, together with our own magnificent Foundation, has done an exceptional job and we are excited for the future of the Moore Family Foundation."
Thursday’s award is further evidence of the Club’s prominent standing in the community sphere, after Premier League Executive Chairman Richard Scudamore earlier insisted that West Ham schemes were leading the way in English football.
One such scheme, the innovative Moore Family Foundation, aims to provide life-changing opportunities for 16,000 Year Six students in Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Tower Hamlets and Thurrock.
The programme is already making a significant impact in upward of 40 schools across the local boroughs and has seen attainment levels rise by 64 per cent.
The Moore Family Foundation is one programme among an-ever growing portfolio of key Foundation community projects, with particular focus on education, health, football development, employability and mentoring, community sports and cohesion.
And the Foundation’s influence is set to extend yet further as the Club embark on its momentous move to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, a unique opportunity to engage with an even broader community.
Moore Family Foundation Patron Roberta, who developed the project alongside the West Ham United Foundation, added:
“We’re absolutely thrilled to bits to win this award and receive the recognition for the fantastic work of the Foundation.
“We were keen to make sure we were impacting so many lives within the area that dad grew up and spent most of his playing career.
“We’ve come an incredibly long way in such a short space of time and I’m sure we’re making dad incredibly proud.
“Everybody here at West Ham has been 100 per cent encouraging of the programme and behind it, and we couldn't have done it without them.
“For me, knowing that my children and Poppy, my late brother Dean's daughter, can be involved in a programme that is also engaging other young people is really important. It's a way of connecting them with my father.”