Just B.U C.I.C, Leigh Genesis F.C and Lowton High School are exploring a partnership to create a Disability Football Team with the aim of providing a unique opportunity for young adult people to get a taste of being part of a major Community Football Club using quality School/club Facilities.

A taster session, funded by the Lancashire Football Association, for Just B.U clients will take place during half term week on Friday the 23rd February from 11.30-14.00. A visit around the clubs facilities and club house including a pre session discussion will take place before the players, support staff and coaches move on to the top quality 3G Multi Use Games Area Football pitch.

Qualified and experienced Coaches will deliver a warm up, followed by technique and skills sessions before moving onto a Small sided game. Refreshment breaks will be taken at regular intervals off the pitch.

At the end of the session its back to the club house for a debrief before everyone makes their way home.

The objective of the session is to expose the players as to how a football team works, the fun that can be derived from playing the game and the disciplines that have to be in place to make it all work. Individuals will become fitter, more sociable and develop characteristics of being a team member. Feedback will be sought to gauge if the session has been a success and decide if regular events should be planned

Justin Fellows explained, "I set up Just B U CIC as an organisation almost 6 years ago to create opportunities for adults with disabilities to learn, gain experience, be responsible, work as part of a team and lead ordinary lives. We have structure, routine and paid professionals to enable people to achieve this. We give people with disabilities the opportunity to express themselves, make decisions and to develop projects. Our projects include social enterprise for example running a shop, a café, park maintenance, be involved in administration for the organisation, to become a DJ and run a nightclub.

We have always had a lot of football fans who use our service. We have supported these people to go to football fundraisers, play football, go to the football museum, watch England in the pub for the tournaments, visit football clubs and go to a live match. Quite a few young men have now joined Just B U who want to play regular football, Josh one of our employees and Leigh Genesis Manager has made this possible. The impossible for many reasons seemed to be how do we create a meaningful project that anyone else in society would be able to access, this being a football club.

After meeting Rob from Leigh Genesis to see how we can create new opportunities for people with disabilities to gain more experiences that are football related it appears we have a similar vision for both organisations Leigh Genesis and Just B U CIC. The Lancashire FA are also keen to be part of our project who also create pathways for people with disabilities to be part of the football world.

I’d like to thank Leigh Genesis for embracing our organisation with this vision including some of your players and families who are already involved and encouraging us to work in partnership. Taster sessions have been agreed to give us the full experience of using the fantastic facilities, what it’s like to be part of a football club, skills sessions and of course, ‘The Match Day Experience’.

All being well the next time you hear from myself and Just B U CIC it will be to tell you what it was like to be part of a club, what we did and what we have achieved.”

Josh Smith commented, "As I am in the privileged position to be involved in both organisations I hope I am able to bring and share my experiences with everyone involved. Just B.U C.I.C has always had a culture to do with sport as we have a lot of football fans within our service, from this it has always been a ‘goal’ to one day create a team which would enable our people to feel part of a football club. if our taster sessions with Genesis are successful then who knows what could lie ahead in the future.

As a Genesis Committee Member I know that as a club disability football has always been a hard nut to crack, when approached by the club regarding disability football I had the perfect solution for both organisations. I really do hope something comes of it because Leigh Genesis F.C. and Just B.U can develop a strong relationship in developing a disability football team. We are really looking forward to the first taster session in February!

Rob Atherton said " Leigh Genesis has been in existence since 2008 and we have had great success both on and off the field in many quarters. However, a disability football team has always eluded us for one reason or another. The possible partnership with Justbu is very exciting for the club and our discussions with Justin and Josh have confirmed that we all want to make this happen. Lets see how the taster session goes and we will go from there"

Check out all about Just B.U C.IC:

On Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/JustBUcic/?locale2=en_GB

Website: https://www.just-bu.org

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/justbucic?lang=en

And let’s make them feel welcome at Leigh Genesis F.C!