Aston Villa Football Foundation delivering Volleyball

Over the last 6 months the Volleyball England Foundation has been working in partnership with the Aston Villa Football Foundation, a registered charity that delivers sport into their local communities The Aston Villa Foundation is now delivering volleyball, funded through Volleyball England and the Sport England, Birmingham Commonwealth Games Legacy I and D fund, to local groups around the club to provide opportunities to achieve its mission of ‘Working Together to Enrich Lives’.

The collaboration started in summer 2022 when15 coaches from the Aston Villa Foundation attended a Volley2s course delivered by the course developer Nick Shaffery. Thanks to the Sport England funding the Aston Villa coaches also received balls, ball carts and net systems to enable them to deliver volleyball. During the summer holidays the coaches incorporated volleyball into their holiday scheme and over 1200 children had first-hand experience of volleyball.

In September the coaches then started working in local primary schools and during the Autumn term 523 children took part in regular volleyball sessions. The coaches also delivered a 1-hour taster session to over 100 Key Stage 2 children at a school near the football ground. At the start of the session only 12% of children had played volleyball before meaning the majority were experiencing Volleyball for the first time. At the end of the session, all the children said they enjoyed Volleyball and 94% wanted to learn more about Volleyball, to support continued delivery of volleyball in curriculum and as an extra-curricular activity the school was given 30 volleyballs.