Hansard

It is a particular pleasure to open the debate on Hamilton Accies exemplary community work and to have the opportunity to highlight the community initiatives that the club is championing.

By way of background, I will say that Hamilton Academicals—or Accies, as they are known locally—was founded in 1874 by the rector and pupils of Hamilton grammar school. In 2001, the club moved to its current grounds at New Douglas Park, and it returned to the Scottish premiership in 2014.

Although I have been very much aware of Accies as the local football club, until I visited the club recently to present certificates to the club’s apprentices as part of Skills Development Scotland’s apprentice week I had no idea of the extent of the youth engagement, community work and services that the club provides for the local area.

For example, as part of the club’s modern apprenticeship programme, which is run in conjunction with SDS, the apprentices take part in the community coaching programme, which runs three days a week for children and young people aged four to 14. The coaching programme connects with young people locally who may, for various reasons, be struggling to cope. It provides the opportunity for those young people to access and receive support from the enterprises and organisations that the club supports. Other benefits and tangible achievements that the programme provides are increased fitness, discipline and, crucially, mechanisms for coping with difficulties that the young people may be facing at school or at home. A staggering 80 to 120 children take part in the programme each week, and they also have the opportunity to attend coaching camps in the school holidays.

The activity does not stop there, and the in-house community outreach team oversees and helps to co-ordinate a diverse range of projects that are run from the grounds of the club. Members of the outreach team include Colin McGowan, George Cairns, Garry King, Lisa Kerr, Catriona McRoberts and Lynn Shaw. I am delighted that so many of the outreach team have managed to come along to the Scottish Parliament to listen to tonight’s debate. It is abundantly clear to me that, as in any successful organisation, a key factor in that success is the people involved. The Hamilton Accies outreach team is living proof of that.

Beyond the football pitch, the club houses a rich variety of community activities including men’s sheds, first launched in Aberdeen and now located in many areas of Scotland. That initiative provides a social area and place for men—many of whom have recently retired or become unemployed—to gather and enjoy male company in their local community. It also provides the opportunity to learn new skills in a workshop environment.

The Hamilton men’s shed, which is located and operated from within the stadium grounds, is the first in South Lanarkshire. Here men can try their hand at woodwork, gardening and electronics, and there is also space to play board games, share hobbies or simply socialise and enjoy the free refreshments. It is to be hoped that, following the positive experience of the Hamilton men’s shed, more will be established in South Lanarkshire.

The club also works with families affected by autism. The weekly parents and carers support groups bring together a network established by the club of practitioners, third sector businesses, local charities and the national health service, in order to provide resources and support for families affected by autism. Here, once a week, parents and carers get some real respite and feel less isolated by sharing advice and through the offer of support.

Furthermore, for more than eight years the club has been running the training for freedom programme, which supports prisoners prior to their being released. The prisoners undertake working days at the club, which helps them to develop social skills and increase their self-esteem. Participation in the programme also provides useful evidence of a commitment and a desire to work when the prisoner’s review is being considered by the parole board. Taking part in the programme before they are eligible for parole helps those individuals to reintegrate into society.

Since 2011, Soldiers off the Street Scotland has been helping ex-service personnel who become homeless. An estimated 10 to 12 per cent of rough sleepers in the United Kingdom are British armed forces veterans. Here again, the club has stepped up to the plate and supports those homeless veterans in Hamilton.

Finally, the football club grounds also host addiction programmes that are well known and operate throughout Scotland. They include Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Alanon, which is a support group for the friends and families of alcoholics, Narcotics Anonymous, and the most recent addition is Families Anonymous, which supports the families and friends of those with drug addiction.

With the family in mind, the Blameless charity was formed at the club to provide a space for fun and hope for the future for children and families affected by alcoholism and addiction. That charity operates from the grounds of the stadium and has

"facilities to accommodate our community with recovery days and open days"

including festivals, play days and away days.

I think that members in the chamber will agree that the community work being carried out at Hamilton Accies is truly exceptional. Also, I consider that it is important to stress that, where other charities may have struggled to engage those vulnerable individuals in need of support, football has acted as a hook to encourage those hard-to-reach individuals to take that first crucial step of walking through the club’s doors to access help.

There is no doubt that Hamilton Accies has put in place a model of community involvement that, with the goodwill and commitment of key personnel, could, and I hope will, be replicated in football clubs across Scotland. In the meantime, the Accies are most certainly to be congratulated.