BEFORE tomorrow's Coca-Cola Championship game against Watford at Portman Road the Ipswich Town Community Trust will launch a partnership with The Prince's Trust.

Elvin King

BEFORE tomorrow's Coca-Cola Championship game against Watford at Portman Road the Ipswich Town Community Trust will launch a partnership with The Prince's Trust.

The Blues will become the first professional football club to deliver The Prince's Trust's personal development programme - TEAM.

TEAM is a 12-week course which includes a residential activity week, community based projects, work experience and help with planning for the future.

The programme enables 16-25-year-olds to develop the skills, confidence and motivation they need to move into employment or further education or training.

Classrooms will be based at Portman Road, and this is the first time a section of the Trust has been domiciled at a football club. Town chairman David Sheepshanks - when chairman of the Football League - introduced The Prince's Trust to football.

He said: “This is a fantastic feather in the cap of our Community Trust chief executive officer Terry Baxter and his team and shows that Ipswich Town are delivering the right things.

“There will be 15 young people who are out of education, out of work and a bit lost in life on each course.

“There is a great success rate with youngsters involved with personal development programmes. Over 40,000 young people get their lives back on track each year.”

Before tomorrow's game a commemorative plaque will be presented to Sheepshanks by Prince's Trust regional director for the east of England, Graham Ball.

Ipswich Town previously supported the charity's programmes as part of The Prince's Trust Football Initiative, involving more than 60 professional football clubs, funded by the Premier League, Football Foundation and The Professional Footballers' Association. The club offered a variety of support including player involvement, motivational talks and stadium tours.