OUR STORY
After years working in the corporate world we wanted to do something different, something that had social impact, and something that leverages our knowledge of the sporting industry to benefit the community.
ISC leant on our relationships with our inspirational clients and other motivational people we have dealt with throughout the industry. We created a team of ambassadors willing to give their time to help the DFY cause. The goal is to inspire young people who are heading down a path where they don't have luxury of choices and equip them with the mental tools to be able to overcome their challenges. We want to help them carve a pathway to their ambitions.
Our Values
Our role models engage with the pupils on our programme by demonstrating how they have made it to the top of their own field. They identified the values they have had to live by to get there and motivate the kids to find instances in their own life where they can utilise these. Values such as dedication, sacrifice, teamwork and ambition. As well as educational and mentoring sessions in the classroom we head outside and use sport as a conduit to show how the values the pupils have learnt play out in reality.
We believe the values learned through the DFY programme are transferable to all areas of their life.
our impact
DFY ran its first pilot scheme at Ark Wembley in spring 2019 and, despite our 2nd scheme being postponed due to restrictions relating to Covid-19 we rolled out to wider community in 2021, impacting more children, and delivering a better program, and offering even more sports, as well as running holiday camps available for free to those who qualify for free achool meals. In 2022 we adopted a youth football team, now called the DFY Academy, to allow children to learn and compete as part of a team. In 2023 we expanded to working with 5 schools and in 2024 increased the offering at several of our sites as well as starting a second holiday camp site. Following a successful fundraiser we will be roll out our pilot mentorship program, where children who need it will receive a personal mentor who will engage with them on a one to one, weekly basis, ongoing after the program has finished to make sure they stay on track with their ambitions.
When the pupil feels confused – we’ll be there, when they feel angry – we’ll be there, when they just feel like they need an adult to talk to – we’ll be there..