Youth Development Week continues with reflection on how the Academy have engaged with the community in the 2024/25 season.
The development of our prospects is values-driven, with keen attention to ensuring there is an engagement with the local area.
This campaign, that has included activities such as school visits, a Green Mile training camp, working on coaching badges by coaching local pupils, as well as community work around our Academy base in Llanrumney.
Head of Education Oli Linton, who plays a huge part in ensuring the players engage with the community, said: "We want to produce young players that are also excellent young men. That's not only on the academic side, but everything that we're trying to implement here. The school visits, meeting different people, learning how to speak and converse, they're real life experiences.
"With Green Mile Training Camp, it was completely different to what they normally would experience. They all applied themselves brilliantly and we had great feedback. We've also done a lot of work in our local area in Llanrumney just to give them different experiences away from the football pitch."
Commenting on the engagement of the Academy in the community, Academy Manager Gavin Chesterfield added: “For me it’s so important. We have to reflect our city, that’s massive for us. Having a values-driven approach is a journey and we’re striving for improvement each and every day. The community engagements, the players have got a lot from that, they appreciate how lucky they are to play football and particularly to represent this football club.
"Also, it samples realness, which further spurs them on. We’ve had events where they’re mirrored staff around the stadium doing their work, whether that be in the ticket office, ground staff or club shop. We want them our players to know that to get them out on that field, it requires a lot of people to come together. There’s nothing that can replicate the feeling of one of our own coming through. That gives the whole Club a massive lift.
"To get those boys out on the field, we need everyone and all parts of the Club come together to hopefully see a boy that started his journey with us at the age of six or seven to coming out at Cardiff City Stadium.
"When we talk about Youth Development Week, it’s a celebration of all the work that goes on around the country; it’s a celebration of the work that goes into the Academy, but also, it’s a celebration of the work that goes on around the whole Club that allows us to hopefully produce our own.”
