Features 
The Trust is committed to working alongside and helping wherever possible all sections of the local fanbase and so NUST are pleased to be backing the Westgate Juniors Football Club. It is a relatively new football club which is now in its fourth year.
The club was set up by chair Keith Morrice to encourage youths and children from the west end of Newcastle into mainstream football. The west end of Newcastle has had many difficulties over the years and is still an area of deprivation where many youngsters face social exclusion.
NUST are awarding their Local Achievers match tickets for the Barnsley game to the following Westgate Juniors Coaches who are all volunteers :
Jamie Parsons - age 21 - he has been a coach from the onset of the club being created and has volunteered on weekly basis and now manages the under 12's
Becky Hendry - age 17 - she has volunteered for up to a year and works with the girls football development and will be running the first under 11 team which will play their first professional game on 28th Feb at a festival in Hexham
Sean Hopkinson - age 18 - volunteers with U7 & U6 football as a coach
Jordan Johnston - age 18 - volunteer coach at Westgate Juniors.
When it was first set up, the club tried to set up an under 17 team but this failed. However, undeterred a new approach was taken. Working with the Hat-trick project (a unique link-up between New Deal for Communities and the Football Association which had been working in primary schools in the west end of Newcastle) an after school football training programme was set up in the summer of 2008. As this programme had regular participants aged 8-9, an under 9 team was set up and entered in the Newcastle mini soccer league.
The coaches for that particular team included the chair and three young people, who lived in the west end.
4 years on and the club have achieved massive growth and remains dedicated in making football accessible to the west end. This is achieved by providing low cost training (50p per weekly session) for children to attend, by providing volunteering opportunities to parents who need to gain experience to help access employment, and by encouraging parent and family members to volunteer as coaches and to gain their FA coaching badges.
At present the club has 8 teams, dedicated training sessions for under 6’s and under 7's and training sessions for girls’ football. The club hopes to enter its first girl’s team next season and the girls team will be entering its first tournament at the weekend.
The club continues to recruit pupils from local schools and is assisted with this by the Hat-Trick Project.
The coaches for the club vary from adults to youths, male and female and from different community groups. The club is proud that it is engaging with youngsters from the west end and is engaging with diverse communities.
The club has always had difficulties with raising funds, however it has persevered.
Westgate Juniors would like to send their several of the coaches to South Africa to run beach football and “soccer academies”. The coaches came to the club when it first began, and since coming on board with Westgate Juniors they have not only achieved their Level one coaching badge but are working towards their level 2. They have also re-entered education by taking up sports related courses.
The coaches will work with existing local charities and will help run beach football tournaments and soccer academies. This gives the coaches a chance to make a difference and will impact the lives of underprivileged children. On their return to the UK the coaches will organise a beach football tournament and will take kids from the west end of Newcastle to Whitley Bay/Tynemouth to experience this. The volunteers themselves will be led by a team of 4 senior coaches. The volunteers are aged16-21 with the majority living in areas of Newcastle that have been deemed as being areas of poverty and social exclusion.
NUST has a great admiration for this sort of Community based operation and respects the work done by Keith and his coaches. We will be teaming up with Westgate Juniors in the future for fundraising events and to help out where we can.
If anyone has any queries, offers of help or would like to make a donation please contact me at tony.stephenson@nust.org.uk and I will put you in touch.
