Stoke City to educate young people about respect to stamp out domestic violence

Stoke City say they want to do more to end domestic abuse by embedding awareness of it into their community work and their engagements with young people.

The club spoke to Hits Radio News after announcing that they had become the first football club in England to sign-up to the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant.

It means The Potters have committed to an action plan to offer things like a safe space, job security and flexible working, and opportunities to ensure victims achieve long-term financial independence and economic security.

Adrian Hurst, Head of Community at Stoke City FC told Hits Radio News:

"If we can educate young people to know that being involved in domestic violence is wrong, will we ever stamp it out? I'd love to think we can assist and play our part.

"For me, it tends to come from somebody having a lack of education and bad attitude.

It's about somebody making that conscious decision to do that to somebody else, and we want to educate certainly our young people to have that mutual respect for people.

"The more education we put out there, we may just allow people to make different decisions in the future.

"The more visibility we can give campaigns and topics like this, potentially we can save somebody's life."

The covenant is a pledge taken by businesses to support those affected by domestic abuse to enter, remain or re-enter the workplace.

Currently, Stoke City FC are putting together an action plan on what their domestic abuse support offering will look like. They're also engaging with the EFL in the hope of assisting them to become part of the Domestic Abuse Covenant to set a precedent for other English clubs to follow.

Mims Davies MP, Minister for Disabled People, Health & Work said: “It is fantastic to see Stoke City supporting domestic abuse survivors by signing up to the covenant and I strongly encourage other employers and sectors who haven’t already to do the same and join in helping to make positive change."

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