Fancy a West Ham United player dropping in to raise the profile of your school, charity or community group? That's what's on offer, along with a £4,000 cash donation from the Barclays Premier League, as Creating Chances Places for Players returns for the new 2008/09 season.
Launched last season, Places for Players is part of Creating Chances, the Premier League's flagship good cause programme, and showcases the vast amount of work that West Ham United and the other 19 Barclays Premier League clubs do in their local communities. Taking place from September to November 2008, one of the highlights of this season's programme is that every club has a player and six £4,000 donations from the Premier League to give away.
To be in with a chance of winning one of these prizes, not-for-profit community groups, charities and good causes need to fill in a simple application form. Organisations, which should be local to the club, are asked to think how they could best use a West Ham United player to raise awareness of the good work that their group does in their community, and also how they would use the £4,000 donation.
The closing date for entries is Friday 1 August 2008. Once the entries are collated West Ham United will choose one winning organisation who will receive a player visit and a £4,000 donation. Five additional runners-up will also receive a £4,000 donation from the Premier League.
To apply for Creating Chances Places for Players 2008/09, click here
This year's Places for Players follows on from the massive success of last season. Among the winners was the Decoda Music Gym who received a visit from Lucas Neill for the afternoon, Diabetes UK who had James Collins and Carlton Cole attend one of their roadshows and the Children in Crisis programme who took Craig Bellamy and Kieron Dyer to a school in south London to participate in a quiz about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
Full details of what the players did at every Barclays Premier League club - and perhaps some inspiration for this year's Places for Players application form - and all the terms and conditions can be found by clicking here
Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive Premier League, said: "We want to build on last season's achievements where we successfully showcased all of the work that takes place right across the League on a daily basis. Places for Players is a very important initiative for the Barclays Premier League because community engagement is now woven into the fabric of football and the size and scope of that commitment today really is something of which the Premier League, our clubs and the players can be extremely proud."
Creating Chances Places for Players is part of Creating Chances, which is now the 'umbrella brand' for the Premier League's expanding £122m community programme which aims to use the power of football to engage children and young people in social intervention programmes aligned to five key areas - Social Inclusion, Health and Wellbeing, Equalities, Education, and International Development.