Today, Derby County Community Trust hosted its first Switching Formations event, marking the end of the 12-week development cohort.

The Switching Formations programme launched in 2025, centred around challenging harmful gender stereotypes, building emotional intelligence and encouraging respectful relationships.

Over three months, the participants take part in 8 class-based workshops, and 4 team-building sessions, with the aim to foster self-awareness, peer support and personal responsibility.

The programme is supported by the Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association Players’ Fund. Administered through the Premier League Charitable Fund, which allows DCCT to tackle inequality within the local community.

Alongside support from leading law firm, Geldards, as shared by their chairman, David Williams, “Geldards is proud to support Derby County Community Trust’s ‘Switching Formations’ programme, the work carried out by the Community Trust in our local secondary schools is of paramount importance. Empowering young people to make informed decisions and giving them the tools to challenge harmful stereotypes is an important building block in creating community cohesion.  As a local employer Geldards is committed to making positive improvements to the communities we serve, and where better to start than with the next generation.”

The event was attended by 4 local secondary schools, all of which enjoyed a rotation across 4 different activities.

Starting with a workshop with a team member from the Trust’s programme, Active Choices, Edmund. The participants listened to Edmund share his past experiences, explaining temptation and the power behind our choices.

Next, participants enjoyed a tour around Pride Park Stadium, taking their photos pitch side whilst learning about the heritage of DCFC and seeing behind the scenes of the Football Club.

Before lunch, they headed to their third session, a workshop hosted by Ygam, a charity who are dedicated to preventing gaming and gambling among young people.

To end the rotation, the boys let off some steam and got their bodies moving in a game of football at Debry Arena.

Before the day ended, the schools gathered back together and watched a video shared by Dion Sanderson, sharing the importance of acknowledging misogynistic behaviour, whilst having the confidence to call it out.

Braidy Connell-Webster, second-year scholar for Derby County Football Club, also came along to Harrison’s Hub to meet the students and answer their questions.

Inclusion Officer, Zack said, “It was fantastic to deliver our first-ever Switching Formations event today, welcoming our initial four secondary school cohorts to run an official launch of the Switching Formations Programme.

The event gave us another chance to inspire, educate, and engage the young boys in the programme in positive activities that promote healthy, respectful, and inclusive forms of masculinity. We aim for this learning to have a lasting impact not only within their school environments, but also to extend into their homes and wider communities.”

If your school is interested in our Switching Formations programme, please contact Zack Yates – zack.yates@dcct.co.uk for more information.

To read more, click here – https://derbycountycommunitytrust.com/what-we-do/switching-formations/.