BURTON Albion first team players Scott Fraser and Ben Fox, as well as Academy youngsters Tom Hewlett and Ben Hart, have been on hand to support Burton Albion Community Trust (BACT) in building a partnership with a local Mosque group.
The Crescent Learning Centre, in partnership with Burton Icademy for Learning and Development (BILD), is a provider of supplementary education in the heart of the Burton upon Trent community. The centre offers a comprehensive and rigorous method of teaching the Arabic language to enable students to read and understand Quranic Arabic with fluency.
As part of strengthening the partnership, the Brewers players joined a number of day-to-day and practicing Muslims who attend the centre, to listen and learn more about the their culture and beliefs. Danny Mondesir, Positve Action Officer at Staffordshire Police was also in attendance to support the event.
This is the start of plenty of work that’s planned between Burton Albion and The Crescent Learning Centre, with BACT continuously trying to reach out and support many different local community groups, which is funded by the Premier League Charitable fund. As part of the Ramadan holy month of fasting starting in May, the Brewers will also be supporting a football tournament on the 18th May at the Burton Albion Community Football Centre 3G.
John Widdowson, Community Operations Manager, said: “These types of events are really important to spread awareness, create an understanding and to build common grounds in the local community.
“To be able to bring players along to these events creates a really statement for what we are trying to do and we believe that it can have a real impact on the way that people might have an opinion on these groups.
“It was a brilliant evening and we are really grateful for such a warm welcome. It’s a partnership that we are really excited about!”