Manchester City Football Club (Manchester City) and Etihad Airways have joined forces to develop youth leaders around the world, who are tackling social issues in their communities, by delivering youth-led football projects.

Returning for its third year, the Cityzens Giving Young Leaders Summit welcomed more than 50 young leaders from Manchester City’s global network of community projects to City’s state of the art training facility, City Football Academy. The week-long programme saw leaders from Manchester and 11 cities in India, Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Australia and The Americas, take part in a variety of on and off-the-pitch workshops to develop and enhance their community football leadership and coaching skills.

As the official summit partner, Etihad Airways connected young people from the Emirates Foundation in Abu Dhabi with their peers by flying them over to Manchester. The young leaders are working in community football in Abu Dhabi and used this as an opportunity to develop their knowledge and skill base.

The Abu Dhabi representatives joined other leaders from projects in Beijing, Bandung (Indonesia), Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, Cape Town, Kuala Lumpur, Barranquilla (Colombia), Kolkata and São Paulo.

The delegates, aged between 16 and 30, are currently delivering community football projects addressing a range of issues affecting young people, such as gang crime, substance abuse, HIV / AIDS, obesity and creating safe spaces for children to play football.  For several delegates, this was their first experience of international travel.

Omar Berrada, chief operating officer for Manchester City FC, said: “We are extremely proud that our community footprint continues to grow and develop every year – both locally where City Football Group has Clubs in Manchester, New York City and Melbourne but also globally. This summit epitomises the power of football to change lives and we’re delighted to be working with Etihad Airways to connect the young leaders together.

“We’ve brought young leaders from different backgrounds, speaking a number of different languages and yet they all share a common goal – to make a difference through football. Using our community philosophy and years of experience, we are equipping the young leaders with the tools they need to go out and deliver life changing projects in their communities.”

Patrick Pierce, vice president, marketing partnerships at Etihad Airways, said: “Etihad Airways has a duty to contribute to communities around the world. By flying delegates into Manchester for the Cityzens Giving Young Leader Summit, we are honoured to connect young people who seek to address complex social issues in their home cities. This is another powerful example of using the medium of football to tackle a wide range of social problems and give young people a brighter future.”

The week also saw leadership master classes from Club experts, including members from City Football Group’s Leadership Team, as well as more practical sessions on event and project management, safeguarding and monitoring and evaluation.

On the final day, leaders put all their newly found knowledge and experience into practice as they organised and delivered two highly successful football festivals for 240 local school children and Manchester City fans. - TradeArabia News Service