The Arsenal Foundation
The Arsenal Foundation announced Save the Children as its global charity partner in 2011 and since then has raised over £3.7 million for our vital work.
The opening of Arsenal Foundation funded football pitches in North Jakarta, Indonesia with Save the Children.
Together we are using the power of football to improve the lives of vulnerable children across the world. In 2018 we co-created Coaching for Life, an ambitious programme harnessing 100 years of Save the Children's child protection expertise and 34 years of Arsenal in the Community's sports for development experience.
Our unique programme aims to build children’s courage and inner strength through football. Giving children aged 12-18 the opportunities and tools to reach their full potential.
We're piloting Coaching for Life in Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan and Jakarta, Indonesia to give 4,000 children the skills to cope better with the chaos that surrounds them. We're also building the evidence base around sports as a key tool for development interventions – with hopes to launch at scale to reach more children in years to come.
INDONESIA
In August 2019 Arsenal Women’s player and England Lioness Leah Williamson saw firsthand the incredible impact we’re having for girls living in the most disadvantaged slum communities in Jakarta, Indonesia – where children face daily struggles such as poverty, exploitation and violence. Read more about her trip here.
In April 2017 Ray Parlour officially opened one of our football pitches in North Jakarta, Indonesia.
JORDAN
In September 2018 Arsenal Academy Manager Per Mertesacker visited our Coaching for Life programme in Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan to meet children who have fled the devastating Syrian conflict.
Iraq
In March 2016, Arsenal Women’s captain Alex Scott visited an internally displaced people camp in Iraq where she met young girls who had fled war who are now participating in our football programme. Read about her trip.
“Having escaped violence and war with only the clothes on their backs, football is giving them back a childhood and some normality after everything they’ve been through” says Alex Scott.
Year-round support
In times of crisis, Arsenal are quick to respond to its global community through Save the Children’s emergency work including the Ebola Outbreak, Philippines Typhoon, Nepal Earthquake, Syria Crisis, Child Refugee Crisis and East Africa Food Crisis.
But our partnership goes beyond fundraising. Arsenal have helped spread the word of our annual fundraising events; Christmas Jumper Day and Den Day.
Arsenal have encouraged fans and the public to take part - from former manager Arsène Wenger taking part in a spoof press conference, to star players being revealed as champion den builders.
Christmas Jumper Day
As silliness swept across the nation for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day 2016 – Arsène Wenger, Hector Bellerin and Santi Cazorla called a press conference to let the British public know that they’ll be taking it very seriously. Wenger asked everyone to follow in Arsenal’s footsteps and sign up to Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day.
To help raise funds for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day, Arsenal’s exclusive festive knits, worn by Bellerin and Cazorla in the spoof video, carried a 20% donation of the RRP. The First team got into the festival spirit too wearing the Arsenal Christmas jumper for their squad shot.
Page last updated in January 2022
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