BACK IN October 2022, Paula Powell and Sarah Lalaz spoke to The Voice about their exciting new project, Football4Impact, which aims to bring together young people from Switzerland and the UK to enhance the lives of the students, through the power of football.

Since that interview, both trips have now taken place, with the Swiss students visiting London in October and vice versa this past April.

Paula and Sarah sat down with The Voice to share the developments of the project which continues to grow and shows no signs of slowing down.

MC: Talk to me about phase two of Football4Impact, the Switzerland trip?

PP: The London boys really were quite excited about the whole experience because they have travelled, but never to Switzerland. They were brilliant, so respectful, everything that was rolled out for them, they embraced.

Coming together again, with the Switzerland boys, with the whole project, it showed so much positivity, the impact of two cultures coming together. The friendships have continued; without myself and Sarah needing to orchestrate that.

The London boys gained an understanding of a new culture by engaging in cultural activities such as eating at a cheese restaurant – something which was totally new to them because about 90% of the London boys were from Caribbean background.

We aim to educate them with regards to leadership and being able to manage their finances

Football4Impact

SL: The whole reason why we designed the programme was for two cultures to come together who wouldn’t ordinarily meet, and to have an impact upon each other. This also happened in a way that we didn’t necessarily or couldn’t have necessarily predicted at first.

An example of this was during the mental health workshop, the Swiss students were quite hesitant stating their opinion and speaking out, whereas the London boys became really involved and didn’t mind talking openly about their experiences. This was one of such instances in which the Swiss students really learned something from the London boys, that there was no shame in speaking up about experiences or feelings.

What ideas do you have for the future of Football4Impact?

PP: We’re now extending the programme and will bring the girls on board for phase three. We will have the same template regarding the exchange – the young people still come together from London and Switzerland. However, we will bring a new cohort of mixed students together. That’s what we’re going to focus on in October; we’re in the process of doing that as we speak.

SL: We are also reaching out to other Premier League clubs to work with us to keep the interest of the young people we will work with.

I think as we go along, Football4Impact will evolve. I think we’ve got a really great project to be quite honest, which we hope will develop and grow with time. We want to be able to give opportunities to a range of people from all different walks of life.

People are starting to approach us now to get involved, which is quite nice.

How much of an impact are you already seeing on the kids and how much further do you want to take this?

PP: As adults, I think we can underestimate young people slightly. They are all about mobiles – if they want to connect then it is easy for them to do so.

The project obviously made an impact on all of them because they continue staying connected during and after phase one and two of the project.

Going back to what we do when they all come together, we want to create educational opportunities alongside football.  For instance we aim to educate them with regards to leadership and being able to manage their finances. We want them to be able to be able to control and manage their mental health as well.

Football is the common thread which weaves through the programme, but at the same time, we also want to give the young people real life tools to be able to step into their next chapter.

What we are trying to negotiate as well is for them to have a day at Eton College, or Cambridge University, so then that way, they can see that there is a possibility that they can also get to that university as well.

There are boys from Afro Caribbean backgrounds who are at Eton College and they are at Cambridge University. We want to let them know that you can look at this environment of education, and you can see that you can be there too, because they can see boys of their age, also at Cambridge University.

What is your goal to develop the initiative even further?

SL: To be able to make it sustainable, to be able to fund it without having to do lots of little fundraising activities that we did for phase one and phase two, which was quite hard work.

To pitch the programme to people and organisations who are then able to see the value in it for the groups of young people. We would like them to help us with grants needed to keep this programme rolling out.

Myself and Sarah, two women living in two totally different parts of the world, having no interest in the male dominated world of football, are proving that something like this is doable

Paula Powell

Also, what’s important for us is if students do play a part, they also fundraise for the next cohort of kids, it doesn’t have to be an enormous amount, but it’s just about showing the commitment.

PP: We want to show also, from our perspective, myself and Sarah, two women living in two totally different parts of the world, having no interest in the male dominated world of football, that something like this is doable.

Whatever you want to do, you can do and we’re hoping that phase three and four does become bigger.

If you want to get involved with Football4Impact, you can find out more information on their website.