Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has said "we want to do as much as we can for the people of Liverpool" in a bid to try and tackle youth poverty across the North West. Jamie Carragher has been a household name for years after rising through the ranks at Liverpool FC and becoming one of the club's greatest ever defenders in a career that has spanned decades.
After retiring, he's swapped the pitch for the TV studio, becoming a regular on Sky Sports. However, he is now shifting his attention to helping those most in need across Liverpool and the north west.
Helping the less fortunate
He told the ECHO: "I think if you've been lucky enough to do OK in life, I think you should always be looking to make sure you can help other people who have not been as fortunate."
"In Liverpool we're so proud of someone who has been a footballer or has made it onto TV. You see Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer, the pride people have in Liverpool seeing those people go across the world, but they're still Scousers, Liverpudlians."
"I always think people in those positions should always try not forget Liverpool and make sure you do as much as you can."
Football for Change initiative
That's why since 2021, Jamie, alongside friends Alex Croft and Dan Hughes set up Football for Change, in an effort to help tackle the issues caused for children living in some of the most deprived areas across the north west.
Over the years, Jamie said he has seen just how serious the situation has been in Liverpool when it comes to socio-economic issues, especially in the areas around Marsh Lane in Bootle where he grew up.
He said: "I'm from Marsh Lane in Bootle and when you go back to 2019, when we were just going into the Coronavirus pandemic, a lot of families at that time struggled to provide three meals a day. Because of the Coronavirus, they weren't getting the school meal."
"So a mother and father having to provide, or maybe a single mother or single father having to provide three meals a day, it was really tough for them."
"I could see the effects of it just in my local area where I grew up. My mum still works at the Brunswick Boys Club now and helps out, so she'd come back with stories about families finding it tough at that time."
"But that was nothing new, that's been the norm, but I just think it became greater around that time during COVID."
Funding youth clubs
Since starting Football for Change five years ago, the initiative has raised over £1.5m and has been going towards helping keeping afloat community lifelines.
Jamie said: "We've looked to help youth clubs they're a lifeline in working-class cities up and down this country. It's somewhere to go, keep you off the street, you're playing sport, you're making friends, it's a safe space to be in as well. I think they've been neglected for far too long in this country, and there's been too many closures."
"I think it's imperative that we keep those running, so we'll have initiatives around making sure some of these youth clubs have got the funds for the full six-week school holiday."
"I think it might be eight weeks now they have off, some of the kids, but when I was growing up, it was always the six-week holidays, I used to go to the Brunny [Brunswick Boys Club] every day, so we want these clubs to stay open and that's why we're helping them with the funding."
In this year's push to raise funds, the charity will be hosting a gala at the M&S Bank Arena on Saturday November 14 with performances from singers Gabrielle and Tom Grennan, as well as a Q&A including Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville and other football stars.
