Balls To Poverty fund-raising events include:

A Question of Sport Event

Supermarket bag packing

“It Started In Soweto” 1,200 mile WATT bike cycle challenge (students cycle in teams to cover the distance between the townships we have visited over the years since Joe’s visit in 2004 to Soweto).

“Ride to Africa” 6,096 mile WATT bike cycle challenge where students cycle in teams over 5 consecutive weekends to cover 6,000 miles. Joe and colleagues finishes the last 96 miles on bikes by cycling between the townships of Cape Town. 6,096 miles symbolises the distance between South Nottingham College in West Bridgford and Guguletu Township in Cape Town, the first township visied in 2005 when 16 students visited with just 30 footballs!

Plans and Dreams

We are introducing a new academic qualification through City and Guilds that is based around The Balls To Poverty Programme, with units that include: Sports event organisation, PR and Communication, Conducting, delivering and evaluating coaching sessions and Building a Sporting Legacy. This is a historic milestone for the evolution of The Balls To Poverty Programme and earlier in 2010, whilst 32 students and 16 staff were distributing merchandise in Cape Town, ex-B2P student kyle Wright was invited by City and Guilds to be a Guest Speaker at The Lions Awards, before 530 delegates at The Lancaster Hotel, London.

In september 2010, a cohort of 16 Level 2 male and female students will commence this qualification and will begin training as community role models/ officers immediately, before they visit 20 different primary schools in disadvantaged areas of Nottingham, teaching and coaching as part of their studies. They will travel, along with 24 male and female students from our Athlete Performance Programmes, to Cape Town in April 2011 to visit townships and will coach 3,000 young South Africans and will distribute another 2,000 footballs and rugby balls.

We plan over the next 5 years and beyond to continue our community development work and coaching work in townships across South Africa. We feel it is especially important to do this after the World Cup has finished and leaving a legacy is crucial for The Balls To Poverty Programme.

We aim to coach more children in South African townships and to continue to distribute footballs and rugby balls, engaging more young people who may at risk of crime and drug use, through smaller, more local sports projects that we partner where our balls are used by PE teachers and township project leaders.

As part of aim to create a more long-lasting legacy through our programme, We have delivered football and rugby coach education workshops to around 400 South African Coaches across the country since 2005. This number will rise to 500 coaches with an additional World Cup Coach education Work shop in June 2010 and there are plans to increase our coach education and teaching provision through accredited courses in the future. We feel it is important to exchange and share information on teaching and coaching with the role models and community leaders from the township areas in particular, in addition to the footballs and rugby balls that we provide. The intention is that the impact of this combination will have a greater positive influence over young people in those areas.

We aim to have reached around One Million young South Africans who will have had access to games of football and rugby through The Balls To Poverty Programme by the end of 2015 and our Post-World Cup Phase. This will have involved working in over 35 different townships across the country from Soweto, Johannesburg in 2004 to Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, Mbashe, The Garden Route and Cape Town.

We aim to continue and build on our extensive Schools Community Programme that we run in disadvantaged areas of Nottingham when students return for South Africa. Between ay and July 2010, 32 students, led by 4 B2P Community Officers (all ex-students from within the Balls To Poverty Programme), work in teams for 10 week periods in as many as 25 different Primary schools with pupils between the ages of 7 and 11 years. The B2P students re-enact the football and rugby township coaching sessions and embed a tutorial theme within each visit. These themes include: Community, Inspiration, Aspiration, Empowerment, Self-belief and Taking action!

To reach out to many more young children and teachers in deprived areas across South Africa, other countries and across all our partner primary and secondary schools in Nottingham and across UK. Having already coached 10,000 primary school children as part of an "Early Years Intevention" strategy, our intention is to engage with many more younger school children in the City and across UK.

We aim To share and extend the Balls To Poverty Programme to other Colleges and organisations across UK and to inspire young male and females who can make valuable and long-lasting contributions in our communities across UK and overseas. The aim is to achieve this through the delivery of the Balls To Poverty academic qualifications that 'package' the life-skills and academic/ vocational skills that reflect the programme.

With many of our Role Models receiving recognition for their contributions through The Balls To Poverty Programme, We aim to develop a UK-focussed empowerment programme that will provide even more opportunities for young people and adults to inspire others across our communities. This will be achieved through mentoring and coaching in the community: student presentations in schools: inner-city youth sports schemes….all with full support of national Governing Bodies.

The Empowerment programme will involve shaping character development earlier in young students when they first enrol at College and guiding them through fund-raising initiatives and school visits to develop their skills. The programme will include students taking part in life coaching/ goal-setting projects that will aim at supporting young people with their personal goals and ambitions.

To reach out to many more young children and teachers in deprived areas across South Africa, other countries and across all our partner primary and secondary schools in Nottingham and across UK. Having already coached 7,000 primary school children as part of an "Early Years Intevention" strategy, our intention is to engage with many more younger school children in the City and across UK

We aim to extend The Balls To Poverty Programme to other countries so we can reach other young people through our work and engage young people from UK in different cultures.

In July 2010, 16 Balls To Poverty students will visit Belfast to take part in B2P Northern Ireland. The aim is to team up with young Protestant and Catholic footballers on The Midnight Street Soccer programme to play matches, conduct educational workshops and to conduct B2P community coaching sessions to 8 to 12 year olds in disadvantaged areas of Belfast.