Unity

Welcome to the Unity webpage, currently hosted by Connexions Nottinghamshire

And the winner is...!!

Stuart Thomas, from Strelley. Congratulations to Stuart, who wins two tickets to the Nottingham Forest vs Walsall match.

Unity player throwing in ball Unity uses football to bring together young people from different areas of Nottingham often associated with gang rivalries and violence. In addition to the football, the young people also attend workshops and training to help them progress into education, employment or training.

The Unity project was kick-started by St Anns-born Morris Samuels, of Crime Concern, who wanted to create something positive from three areas – the Meadows, St Anns and Radford - that received such negative publicity.

Using football as a means of engagement, Morris has brought the Unity players together in a bid to improve relations between young people in these Nottingham communities and ease inner-city tensions.

Unity has expanded over the last year and is now managed by a partnership of local agencies. The Unity Partnership is represented by Connexions Nottinghamshire, Crime Concern, the Football Foundation, Nottinghamshire Police, Nottingham Forest, Nottingham City Council, Experian, Supporting Communities, Football in the Community, Notts County Football Club, South Nottingham College, Nottingham Crime and Drugs Partnership and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

On this page, you’ll find some key facts about Unity, a podcast about the project, some info about the Unity Champion, Eric Barnes, and the programme for the Unity vs Nottingham Forest game on Tuesday 21^st August 2007.

This page will be updated with news, match reports and podcasts of games and the big Forest launch, so don’t forget to save to your favourites.

Malc Spray
Unity Project Director

Unity Facts

Unity is the brainchild of Morris Samuels, a project worker with Crime Concern’s youth inclusion project in Nottingham.
Unity is a squad of 22 young people from different areas of the city: Radford, Broxtowe, Bestwood, the Meadows and St Ann’s.
It played its first match against an IX from Ilkeston Town on 23 November 2005. Back then Morris, the team’s coach and mentor, had to beg and borrow kit, footballs and a pitch to practice on.
Since then Unity has played against teams from across Nottingham including the police and a team from Nottingham Forest.
Their skill and commitment – to both the game of football and to the cause of ending gang violence in Nottingham – has attracted attention from people both locally and further afield.
At the beginning of 2007 a partnership led by Connexions Nottinghamshire with the police, Crime Concern and the local authorities was successful in securing three years funding from the Football Foundation.
With this and local match funding Unity has a bright future and with this in mind decided to hold an official launch on August 20, 2007 at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground.
The Unity project now has over 100 young people from inner city Nottingham on its books.
The aims of the Unity Project are to:

Encourage young people to play sport together and breakdown city geographical and ethnic barriers
Provide activities that support young people to increase their aspirations and educational attainment
Tackle anti-social behaviour and reduce crime in those communities

To encourage young people, particularly those from BME communities to volunteer in their communities.
For Morris who has worked with some of his team for more than five years it’s about changing the way we think about and act towards young people. He says: “Things are much tougher for young people than they used to be – there are so many negatives like violence, drugs and crime. Unity is about giving out positives – young people united against guns and gang crime.”
The Football Foundation, the UK’s largest sports charity, are providing a grant of £159,530.
After a recent match against a team from Nottinghamshire police, Morris said: "Watch this space - the Unity team is going places not just in playing great football but also in mending and creating important community relationships."

On Tuesday 19th August a Connexions-supported football team take on a Nottingham Forest squad at the City Ground. More...

View our video podcast now! Click on the Play control to start the video below.

Eric Barnes OBE, DL
Unity Ambassador

Picture of Eric Barnes Eric Barnes joined GUS in 1953 as a management trainee in its Nottingham furniture division and held a number of senior management positions in the GUS Group before his retirement as Director and Deputy Chairman in 2002.

During his career with GUS, Eric held chairmanships in a number of retailing divisions within the Group including Footwear, Home Decorating and Ladies Fashion and subsequently with Burberry and Scotch House. He was appointed to the GUS Board in 1984.

Eric was a founding director in 1980 of CCN (re-named Experian in 1996), the Group’s information services division, and was Chairman until July 2001. Experian is now a global leader, providing information solutions to organisations and consumers. It is a major employer in Nottingham and has a workforce of over 12,000 people in 27 countries and supports clients in more than 60 countries. Annual sales in 2004 exceeded £1.3 billion.

In addition to a successful business career Eric has championed many social and community causes focusing on his roots in Nottingham and the East Midlands. A lifelong supporter of Nottingham Forest Football Club he became Chairman in 1999. Through this association he encouraged an initiative to establish an after school study support centre at the Club, creating a partnership with Experian and the City to match Government funding.

As chair he also supports the charity Open Industry, East Midlands which organises visits by schools to local companies allowing children to gain a better understanding of business.

Both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University have benefited from his involvement both professionally and privately in a number of projects including the development of computer-training suites at Nottingham University’s Business School.

In addition, Eric is a Trustee of Nottinghamshire Community Safety Trust. He is also Chairman of Age Concern, East Midlands.

In July 2000 the University of Nottingham conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration. In 2004 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and was awarded an OBE for services to the East Midlands.