Our Founder and Chairman, Steve Morgan CBE, sent a video message to 50 young people as they graduated from the Wrexham AFC Foundation Young Leaders programme. Drawing on his own path into business, he spoke about the setbacks he faced, the opportunities he took and the lessons he learned along the way. His message was simple: resilience, ambition and hard work create opportunity.
The Young Leaders programme inspires young people, provides personal development opportunities and offers career pathways through the power of football.
We support the programme because it helps young people develop the skills, confidence and experience they need to thrive. Using football as a platform, Young Leaders can build leadership skills, gain coaching qualifications and explore future career pathways.
At the graduation ceremony, Wrexham AFC first-team managers Phil Parkinson and Jenny Sugarman presented awards recognising the group’s contribution to their local communities over the past season. Participants also shared the work they had completed throughout the year, including event plans, session delivery and coaching qualifications.
Speaking about the programme, Parkinson said:
“I think it’s very important, for youngsters, for their own personal development, to go out and show leadership qualities and to develop those social skills of interacting with people of all different ages.”
Earlier in the day, the achievements of the Primary Dragons Captains (another initiative supported by the Steve Morgan Foundation) were also celebrated. The programme supports Year 5 and Year 6 pupils to promote play, inclusion, youth voice and community engagement within their schools.
The Captains came together to mark their achievements before taking part in a football session. They were then joined by Wrexham AFC Women’s player Lili Jones, who presented awards and took part in a Q&A, sharing her experiences of leadership on and off the pitch.