Standing Together with Chelsea FC

Our names are Emily and Dara, and we were lucky enough to be selected to take part in the Chelsea Football Club ‘Standing Together’ project. The aim of the project is to educate school pupils about discrimination.

Our experience was amazing! The workshops were so engaging, and the staff were really kind and encouraged us to have good discussions. Some of the workshops we participated in helped us to understand challenging and relevant topics, such as antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate and and hate against LGBTQ+ communities. One of the workshops that really stuck with us focused on the protection of women, and the risks that women face walking home alone. We learnt about the organisation called ‘Just Be Lads’ which helps to educate men about their role in making women safer in the community.

Our favourite part of the day had to be when we had the chance to see the stadium and, even though we were one of many schools who visited on the day, we were the only one who got to see the pitch! We are looking forward to the next stage of the project in which we are going to be developing our public speaking skills. For some of us, this is a bit of a new experience and we think that this will be really helpful for us to be successful in the future.