Tomorrow's fixture against Blackpool has been dedicated to celebrating the work of 'Kick it Out', football's equality and Inclusion organisation and both sets of players, match officials and Happy Harry and Hatty will be wearing Kick It Out T-shirts in their warm-ups in support of the campaign.
Kick It Out is primarily a campaigning organisation which works with the football authorities, professional clubs, players, fans and community trusts, to tackle all forms of discrimination. The campaign has been pivotal in persuading and supporting the game's stakeholders to take their equality responsibilities seriously. The vision is that football will be a sport where people flourish in a supportive community, and where fairness is openly and transparently practiced and enforced for the good of all participants.
Kick it Out seeks to promote awareness of the benefits of equality, inclusion, diversity policies and practices in football, expose and challenge all aspects of discrimination and unfair practices, and conduct at all levels of football as well as sharing information about good practices being pursued to achieve equality.
We hope Kick It Out matchdays such as tomorrow's significantly increases the awareness of inclusion and diversity, and the consequences of inappropriate behaviour across all levels of football and to clearly show the importance of exposing inequalities and the positive value and impact that can be made through collective action.
As part of tomorrow's Kick it Out 25th anniversary matchday we will have a group of young men aged 16-18 years, and mostly from Sudan, who arrived at Luton Airport as unaccompanied asylum seekers and who take part in our weekly football sessions the Trust run as part of our community-led Local Development 'Luton Street League' project.
⚽️KICK IT OUT | The Hatters' match with @BlackpoolFC this Saturday is dedicated to the fine work of @kickitout in their 25th anniversary season promoting inclusion and fighting discrimination in football.
— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) April 3, 2019
👉👉🏻👉🏼👉🏽👉🏾👉🏿https://t.co/F2zkifrrqV #NoRoomForRacism #COYH pic.twitter.com/IOdgCxXHKY
The 'Luton Street League' project is a joint project between the Hatters Trust, East Cricket and Luton Basketball that seeks to use sport to improve community cohesion and life chances for young people in Luton. The overall project involves investment from both the Trust, our partners Beds Cricket, and the European Union through the European Social Fund, with Luton Council managing the project.
'Luton Street League' operates ten centres across town that offer free weekly football, cricket, basketball and other sports to young people from right across Luton, and as well as aimed at improving community cohesion, all centres offer employment training and skills workshops to help participants either improve their current employability opportunities or future employment chances.
The Luton Street League project falls within the Council's Community Local Led Development (CLLD) strategy that sets out a vision and action plan centred around six strategic objectives that all address in one way or another the many barriers to employment that certain sections of the Town's population face, as well as focusing on the importance of community cohesion in raising the outside perception of Luton to employers and potential visitors.