For the second time this year, the West Ham United’s Players’ Project, led by Mark Noble, hosted local homeless people at London Stadium, offering vital services and support in the run up to Christmas.
Mark Noble, Fabian Balbuena and Albian Ajeti gave up their time on Wednesday afternoon to meet local people, and provide food, hairdressing, job support and podiatry services, as well as organising clothing collections and putting on a PlayStation fun zone to support those in the local community who need it most.
Helping tackle poverty is a key strand of the Players’ Project, which launched in 2018. The Project has been hailed as the most-ambitious community programme ever created by a Premier League Club, where players from the men’s, women’s and Academy teams have given over 300 hours of community time, directly working with over 2,000 people from the local community over this last year alone.
.
Hopefully just a little bit of my time and everyone else’s time makes someone’s Christmas. That’s really important
Mark Noble
Club captain Mark Noble said: “Small little gestures like this; coming here, spending time with people and giving some warm clothes out, some scarves, some trainers and some hot food, it means a lot to people. If you’re in a privileged position like I am, or a lot of people are, you don’t realise what this means to other people. As I’ve said, I’m from this area and it means a lot to me to be here today. Hopefully just a little bit of my time and everyone else’s time makes someone’s Christmas. That’s really important.
Terry, a participant at the event said: “It’s just nice that people are coming down and they’re giving back. As I said before, it’s humbling, it really is. To see this geezer here [Mark Noble] show his face, you know, I’m a bit starstruck now. He’s a legend where I’m from. It’s lovely.”
Noble added: “It’s great for me to be here and meet people like Terry. Obviously, we’re from the same area, but we’ve gone on completely different paths.
“Where I grew up, I never thought I would be in a position to captain West Ham, this great Club. So to spend my time here today with people that, as Terry said, have bought tickets over the years, watched us through tough times and good times, and that’s why I think this Club is so special, because we do stick together.”
The Club worked with local charities Haircuts4Homeless and Complete Feet Healthcare Limited, sourced beauty therapists from Newham College, offered drug and alcohol advice from CGL and received clothing donations from West Ham United players and staff and London Stadium catering supplier, Delaware North.
The Players’ Project, split into eleven strands, delivers over 30 programmes that span health, education, community initiatives and football development, which engage with up to 50,000 people per year.
In November, the Club announced that just one year into the Players’ Project, £5m of its original £10m commitment has already been invested in local projects, taking the total since 2013 to £18m, and that it will increase its commitment over the next two seasons and will invest a further £10m, an increase of £5m on its initial pledge, giving a forecasted investment of £28m by the end of 2021.
Tower Hamlets and Newham have the highest rates of poverty in London and, in both boroughs, nearly two in five residents are living below the poverty line, while Newham is home to the highest proportion of low-income employees of any London Borough.
Striker Albian Ajeti concluded: “The people who are homeless, they appreciate the food that they get and the gifts they get very much. It’s the same for us. We appreciate the lives we have so it’s always good when we can help them. Really this makes me proud to be part of this Club that cares so much.”