This weekend, football clubs around the country will be supporting the Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaign. The iconic rainbow laces have become the symbol of inclusion across sport in recent years and staff at the Community Trust team have been working within local schools in Chesterfield to spread this year’s message.
Our Primary Education manager Tom Keenan said: “We have been delivering workshops around equality and diversion for a long time via the Premier League Primary Stars, and it is important children are aware of the terminology around LGBQT+. The simple message of our workshop is everyone is welcome to come along to the Technique Stadium and support Chesterfield Football Club.
“This year we decided to go one step further. To help create a longer lasting impact, we asked the children to design a t-shirt which spread the message of this year’s Rainbow Laces campaign – Be an Ally.”
Staff at the Community Trust were so impressed with t-shirt designs they approached the Fashion Department at Chesterfield College to see if they could help bring the children’s designs to life.
Laura Crawley, her staff, and the fashion students selected their favourite six designs. The children where then invited up to the college and worked alongside the students on specialist software to create digital versions of their drawings. The t-shirts were then printed and will be worn by the players during the warm-up before today’s game.
Tom added: “Not only have the children involved learnt about the importance of equality and the terminology around LGBQT+, but they have also been inspired by their visit to the college and have the fantastic experience of seeing their Chesterfield heroes wearing t-shirts they have designed!
“The message of Being an Ally; standing up against all forms of discrimination, will have a longer lasting impact due to the work being done by our staff in local schools.”
It is another fantastic project delivered by our Community Trust and congratulations to the children from Mary Swanwick Primary School for all of their hard work and amazing designs.
