First team players including Dinos Mavropanos, Kyle Walker-Peters, Ollie Scarles, and Lukasz Fabianski visited The Foundry, West Ham United’s Foundation Community Hub, where they took part in a day of activities supporting young people and the wider community.
The players met with children, coaches, and staff involved in the Foundation’s 35 programmes, which serve more than 4,000 east Londoners every week.
Ollie Scarles, one of the first team visitors, said: “I enjoyed it, telling them about different focuses on and off the pitch and all the help we have from different staff groups to hold us into the players that we are. Hopefully they can learn from what I spoke about and it has helped them in the future.
“The foundation’s work is brilliant, just completely inspiring, the Foundry is an incredible facility, it’s really nice to come over and I really enjoy it, it’s great for everybody here.”
Scarles took part in the Hammers for Hope and The Training Ground+ programmes, which support young people not in education, employment, or training, as well as homeless individuals.
Scarles also joined a Q&A in The Foundry’s Strive Zone before heading to the 3G pitch to share footballing tips and chat about his nomination for Young Player of the Year at the London Football Awards.
Kyle Walker-Peters said: “The whole afternoon was really enjoyable, it’s something I would have loved to have been a part of as a kid, I know how much it means to them and I had a great time.”
Joseph Lyons, chief executive of the West Ham United Foundation, said: “The players support for the foundation is always amazing and the time they give truly has a positive impact on all of our participants and staff. There was a great buzz around The Foundry this afternoon with so many First Team players here to support the wide range of programmes that take place in our community hub every day. Sport has the ability to enrich lives.”