'Communicating for Success' will promote healthy living and demonstrate the importance of technology and communication skills at home.
The power of football has been used to help school children in Hartlepool share the secret of healthy living and effective communication with their families.
BT and the Football Foundation, the UK's largest sports charity, have teamed up with Hartlepool United FC in a pioneering initiative designed to improve health, communication and digital technology skills in 12 local families.
Communicating for Success (CfS) is a £1 million UK-wide programme using the positive influence of football to help combat digital exclusion and improve communication skills across the UK.
The Hartlepool project was delivered by the Pools Study Support Centre and Hartlepool United Community Sports Foundation staff. It enabled 12 children from Clavering and West View Primary Schools, accompanied by an adult member of their family, to gain important new skills which they will be encouraged to share with their whole family throughout.
It involved a variety of gym based tasks such as devising training circuits and carrying out demonstrations to other groups. Working in pairs the tasks have all been designed to encourage teamwork, communication and personal development.
There was also internet research challenges around healthy living and nutrition, and the opportunity to use the latest audio and video equipment to capture interviews with health and catering professionals.
The participants then took their work from a raw product to a finished piece of audiovisual media and upload it onto a website designed for the project with input from the children. It also uploadedonto the BT Vision CfC community channel.
Russ Green, Hartlepool United Football Club Chief Executive, said: "Harnessing the power of football and the privileged position the sport has in our society, this innovative project will encourage young people and their families to lead healthy, fulfilling lives while teaching them that ICT can be both fun and life enhancing."
Simon Roberson, BT's North East regional manager, said: "The importance of IT skills cannot be overstated and BT is determined to do all it can to give children the best possible chance in life by helping to build confidence with communications, computers and the internet.
"The Football Foundation has worked with us to develop Communicating for Success, combining the attraction of our national game and other sports with learning, to help people develop skills in ways they have not experienced before.
"The Hartlepool project should be particularly beneficial to these youngsters because it gives them the opportunity to teach their families something new and continue the learning back in their own homes."
Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: "Communicating for Success is a very exciting partnership between the Football Foundation and BT. Not only will participants learn about sport, health and endurance, they will also develop vital communications skills in a more relaxed and enjoyable environment than the traditional, more formal classroom setting."
Communicating for Success is part of a UK-wide programme into which BT is making an initial first-year investment of £500,000, which will be matched by the Football Foundation.
