ABOUT FUTURESTARS
“Our long-term goal is to improve the life of every child who attends a Futurestars supported school.”
Simon Milton, Futurestars Director
Futurestars charity was founded in 2015 and became a registered charity in 2018. We now work with six partner schools in Ghana. The children who attend our schools in Tema come from some of the poorest communities and previously had no access to PE or sports at school. The Future Leaders school provides an education for many children who would otherwise not be in school.
We provide a compliant, transparent and sustainable charity project with all relevant safeguarding procedures in place and our board of trustees offers a wealth of experience from elite sport to finance to education to company board directors. The charity is supported by our Patron and Ambassador, former England Captain Terry Butcher.
Funded by our corporate donors we provide a combination of sports and PE coaching at all our schools as well as regular refurbishment projects (from libraries to toilet blocks, decorating and general maintenance), and direct funding to ensure the long-term sustainability for the Future Leaders School in Accra. We also support individual children in the most difficult circumstances to make sure they can complete their education and have the future they deserve.
Funded by individual donors we run a scholarship programme at the Future Leaders School, and just £12.50 a month supports one child enabling them to stay in education.
We also offer amazing volunteer experiences in Ghana!
We would love you to join us and get involved in the exciting work we are doing, please get in contact if you would like to know more.
Kind regards
Simon Milton – Futurestars Charity Director
Emmanuel Okyne-Tetteh – Futurestars Country Manager, Ghana
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Encouraging Values and Inspiring Young People through Sport and Education
The Futurestars Charity project will deliver sustainable support to community partner schools with vital funding from local and international corporate donors as part of their corporate social responsibility commitment. Futurestars is committed to comply with all relevant charity governance and safeguarding policies and is governed by the UK Charity Commission.
BACKGROUND
It was in 2014, that OMA Group director Gary Miller started thinking about how to put something back to the community where the company was based, and where OMA Ghana employees live and work.
A chance conversation the following year with Simon Milton, then Academy Director at Ipswich Town FC and the idea was born, to use the skills and enterprise of the football club along with the skills, tenacity and local knowledge of the OMA employees in Ghana to help children in some of the poorest communities.
Five schools were selected, after close liaison with the Ghana Education Service. All schools are geographically close to the OMA Ghana office and all clearly in need of funds and assistance and with no provision for sports. Two full time coaches were employed and trained who now visit each school every day to deliver PE, football and netball coaching.
The following year Yinson Production WA who work closely with OMA in Ghana, came on board and spearheaded the refurbishment programme at the schools.
In 2017 we applied for charitable status to enable us to ensure the long term future and growth of the programme, and we have expanded activities into Togo and Accra.
