Swansea City AFC Foundation supports Rainbow Laces through Premier League Kicks, Inspires and Primary Stars programmes
Swansea City AFC Foundation has been raising awareness of Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign through their Premier League Kicks, Inspires and Primary Stars programmes.
Having launched in 2013, this year represents 10 years of Rainbow Laces and, over the decade, more than a million people have taken part in the campaign to support LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport.
The Foundation hosted two stadium days for their Premier League Inspires and Primary Stars schools, which involved Rainbow Laces workshops and competitions to design a rainbow-themed Swans kit and football boots.
“We chose to do a Rainbow Laces kit launch to get the young people thinking about how they can incorporate the campaign into topics and subjects they are familiar with,” said the Foundation’s Premier League Inspires coordinator, Matthew Jenkins.
“I was really impressed with the designs, it was nice to see them exercise their creativity. Giving them that blank canvas so they can come up with whatever they want to is a good way to engage them with a topic and issue they might not otherwise be aware of.
“It’s really important to support Rainbow Laces, with people in secondary schools in particular, because as soon as they started thinking about how they could use rainbow laces to design their kits it broke down a lot of barriers. Awareness and talking about these issues is really important."
Education manager at the Foundation, Ceri Phillips, added: “The pupils we work with on the Primary Stars project, we’re teaching them important things in the real world, and equality and inclusivity are fully part of that.
“It was nice to have some of the schools attend the stadium for the workshops and have a stadium tour, which was good to be able to offer them to inspire the children further."
Academy players Sam Seager and Jack Cooper also surprised primary school children at the Swansea.com Stadium, and took part in a question and answer session before signing pictures.
“It was brilliant to have Sam and Jack join us to inspire the next generation,” said Phillips.
“They were really engaging and supportive of what the Foundation is doing. They promoted the positive lifestyles which they lead, positive behaviours and all the hard work that it’s taken to get to where they are now as young scholars. They were a fantastic addition to the day for us.”
There were more creative designs on show at the Foundation’s Premier League Kicks session in Aberystwyth, where participants learned all about the importance of equality through a football boot design competition, with rainbow badges and laces up for grabs as prizes.
“We had a fantastic time in Aberystwyth and the kids have been really engaged in all our rainbow laces activities,” said Craig Richards, youth engagement manager at the Foundation.
“Football gives us a fantastic platform to support campaigns like Rainbow Laces. To combine the two together means the important messages we want to get across are received in the best way possible.”