The very first young people to achieve their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award within the Football League partnership have received their awards from Craig Hinton and Dean Beckwith. The young people all belong to the Cobblers Multi disabled team; they have both physical and learning difficulties.

Youth charity the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Football League Trust launched the ground breaking national partnership last year. Currently 23 League Clubs are delivering DofE programmes and over 400 young people are registered on programmes from the first year.

The project has been inspiring, enthusing and motivating young people to achieve a Duke of Edinburgh's Award through football across England and Wales.

This collaboration has been building on young people's passion for football and the expertise of one of the UK's most highly regarded youth charities to help young people aged 14-24 to achieve the world's leading achievement award for young people.

The 15 young people from Northampton include two girls and 13 boys aged 14 to 20 years, and they received their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award at Sixfields recently from some of the Cobblers squad

To achieve their Bronze Award the young people all worked together to complete all of the sections that form their Bronze DofE programme. For their Skills section as a group they produced individual booklets either on football players or a football team. For the Physical section, they all played football on a Friday evening for the Northampton Town multi disabled team.

Their Volunteering section involved helping out at an early birds football club which runs on a Saturday morning for local children. The Cobblers have a deaf team and to help the coach, one DofE participant signed for him. Another DofE participant is a ball girl on match days and another helped in a deaf school, helping with the running of games for the younger children.

For their expedition, they completed their two day journey in Northamptonshire walking along the waterways.

Northampton DofE Co-ordinator Margaret Hillyer said: "It's been the most amazing journey for us all. I have learnt as much from these young people as they have learnt from me, everyday life can be challenging, but these youngsters put everything into perspective, they enjoy life, get on with life despite any disability they may have.

"They learnt so many new things they never dreamed they would have the opportunity to do. They could build on friendships they already had and make these friendships stronger. They were in their comfort zone so to try new challenges together made it easier for them to tackle as they had each other to help them. Also the football was already an activity they were doing, as is the early birds, so by putting together already existing activity they could use towards their Award and building up the other areas it has helped make an Award achievable by all.

"One DofE participant who has severe learning difficulties, and didn't talk to me for nearly two months, when on the practice walk the group were struggling to find out where to go next. She looked around and then directed the group onto the right footpath.

"In completing their two day overnight expedition, you should have seen them; they smiled the whole way even when the going got tough.

"They say so much now its hard to think, but one thing that sticks out is one young man said 'I want to do this again' after emerging from his tent on day two. This young man had never walked alone with a group of friends or camped before."

Samantha Bennie National Operations Manager The DofE said: "Fifteen young people from Northampton Town Football Club were the first of our Football League Trust centres to complete all four sections and achieve their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The teams overcame huge personal challenges and their efforts and the efforts of the club's staff are exemplary. I am sure that all involved will benefit from having pushed their personal boundaries and they all deserve the congratulations they received on their presentation evening at Northampton Town FC."

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