Owls Under-18s, 21s and staff from the club’s Academy have taken part in a one-off session with former player and coach Troy Townsend to help them understand equality and discrimination in football.
Facilitated by Sheffield Wednesday and run by Kick It Out, the course aims to work with academy players with today’s session covering;
Racism – What is it, what impact does it have and how can we change it
Homophobia – How can we stop people facing discrimination for their sexuality
Social media – Advice on being mindful about what to post and how to respond to abuse
Advice for parents and guardians – How to give the best support to young players
Advice for staff – From employment law to ways to help every player thrive
Kick It Out, who celebrate their 30th anniversary this year, have run their ‘Equality Inspires’ programme since the 2014/15 season and work with Premier League and EFL academies.
The workshops are designed to get the players talking about racism and discrimination and how they can play a part in getting all forms of discrimination out of football for good.
Session speaker Troy Townsend is head of player engagement at Kick It Out.
He is the father of former England international Andros Townsend and played at youth level for Millwall and Crystal Palace and went on to coach various non-league teams.
Head of Academy Education & Player Care Dan Potts said: “Troy delivers the workshop and we’ve worked with him for many years.
“He’s delving deeper into discrimination and starting the conversation with the players so they know how to report and deal with any discrimination they might face.
“We’ve got a very diverse group of young players so it’s important they feel physically and mentally prepared for any outcomes on and off the pitch.
“The boys are discussing the subjects and it helps them as a team to chat and bond in these sessions as well.
“Troy works closely with Liam Palmer at first team level and he relates a lot of this to his own journey as a football parent with Andros. It’s useful and the boys are always really engaged in Troy’s sessions.”