Aston Villa welcomed some very special guests today as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge headed into Villa Park to check out some fine community work running across Birmingham, funded by their very own Royal Foundation.
The Royal Highnesses were impressed as they viewed first-hand the power of Coach Core – a programme that Aston Villa’s Foundation is fully invested in.
Launched in April this year, Coach Core Birmingham comprises 10 sports organisations from the region who target young people in hard-to-reach communities, providing them with an apprenticeship which allows them to gain sports coaching qualifications and invaluable experience in the workplace.
Aston Villa’s Foundation has taken on 17-year-old Jake Shattock and 20-year-old Kyrie Thompson as they now look to develop their sport and football coaching skills alongside our experts within the Aston Villa Foundation.
Other employers on the programme include Birchfield Harriers, City of Birmingham Basketball and Moseley RFC, with Sport Birmingham coordinating the project across the city.
Delegates from all employers were on hand at Villa Park today to meet the Duke and Duchess, who also watched on as sessions were delivered on the beautiful B6 pitch.
The Duke and Duchess make a host of visits through the year but this will have been a particularly special one for Prince William, who is an avid claret and blue supporter.
Their Royal Highnesses were also introduced to chairman Dr Tony Xia, manager Steve Bruce and chief executive Keith Wyness.
They received Aston Villa shirts – featuring ‘William 82’ and ‘Catherine 82’ – they year of both their births as well as the year of our European Cup win.
They were also handed ‘George 4’ and ‘Charlotte 2’ tops – reflecting the ages of their two young children, as well as an ‘HRH 0’ shirt for their new arrival.
Aston Villa Foundation’s involvement with Coach Core is part of our bigger corporate social responsibility strategy known as ‘Supporting Our Own’ where we look to engage the local community and claret and blue family in a number of ways.
Supporting Our Own was launched in September and will go from strength to strength in the coming weeks, months and years ahead - positioning Aston Villa at the heart of its local community.