Football club's family hub phenomenal, says parent

A football club's new family hub which has been designed to support families in a deprived area has been hailed as "phenomenal".

Ipswich Town Football Club Foundation's new Empower Hub offers weekly youth groups and workshops for families at the Willows Family Hub on Magdalene Close, in the Stoke Park area of the town.

It was officially launched on Tuesday, with Ipswich players in attendance.

Sophie Partlow, 43, attended with her two children and said: "The whole ITFC Empower hub experience has been phenomenal."

Ms Partlow added: "All the different opportunities that they have afforded both of our children is [great], we are very happy with them.

"There's not a wide variety of things outside of this for this location.

"If you go into town there are of course a few things, but particularly in the after school time it's hard to find activities that aren't very expensive, time consuming, or require a lot of travel which is difficult for us."

The hub has been supported by the Premier League, Professional Footballers' Association and the Lentonbrook Foundation.

While it was officially launched on Tuesday, families have been enjoying sessions for the past eight weeks.

Laura-Jane Elmer, 36, is part of a group of local parents who worked with the foundation to set up the hub.

"My son comes every week," she said. "He absolutely loves it.

"He didn't have any sort of after-school clubs or anything just for him away from my other children and the family, and he just absolutely adores it.

"I was part of the group that originally were in talks about this happening and it's really nice, a year later, to see it has happened."

Archie, 12, has been enjoying the hub and said his favourite thing was playing football with the players.

"It's amazing because you get to meet players and those in the foundation who I used to work with in primary school," he said.

"I love [Ipswich Town]. I will always support them for life."

Ipswich captain Dara O'Shea said it was a "privilege" to be at the official launch and to be able to "put smiles on the kids' faces".

"The foundation is... so special to the club," he said.

"Every player that signs to this club honours that and enjoys doing these visits.

"We're really fortunate to have a great foundation within the club and it means a lot to us as players and the fans too."

Ipswich defender Harry Clarke added it was "special" to see how much the players' presence meant to the children.

"You see their face light up every time they see us which is still a weird feeling," he explained.

"(Chairman) Mark Ashton drives it and it's something that is at the top of what we do.

"The main thing we do is on the pitch, but we like to help the community where we can and this shows exactly that."

Leanne Smith, community engagement manager at the foundation, said she hoped the new hub would "raise aspirations" in the community.

"There's not a lot here - if you stand outside the hub there's no place for the kids to play, there's nowhere for the parents to come, there's not a community centre," she said.

"So the whole idea is to bring the community together and give them a place where they feel safe and feel wanted, and support them on their journey in life whether that be to raise aspirations, give their kids safe places to play and just feel part of the community."

Mark Ashton, Ipswich Town's chairman and the founder of Lentonbrook Foundation, said the hub's work was "vital" for the club and "underpins our values".

"I get to see first hand through our foundation at the club the needs of our local community, particularly young children," he said.

"I struggle to believe in the modern world children struggle in so many ways and I want to use the contacts and abilities I have to raise funds to deploy in the local area to support those families and children.

"This is one of the activities we can support and just the more we can do the better."

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