Ryan McBride Foundation directors adamant charity can be saved despite staggering financial cuts threatened its future

The charitable organisation, set-up in the name of the late Derry City captain who tragically passed away in 2017, was fully aware they wouldn't be immune to sweeping budget cut-backs across the board.

However, the news that they would lose a staggering £45,000 in funding for their respective projects was unexpected and has threatened to collapse the Foundation.

When budgeting for this year's annual primary schools programme, the Foundation were expecting a small reduction in monies from the Executive, however, when they were told they would receive nothing, it left them facing a significant deficit which has threatened its future.

The Foundation employs eight staff members, both part-time and full-time, who are all at risk of redundancy following the announcement of financial cuts but despite the uncertainty, Foundation director Sean Cassidy remains optimistic that with the support of the Derry public, some planned fundraising initiatives and a 'cocktail of funding', its flagship primary schools project can still be saved.

The primary school football project, which has been running for five years, sees two football coaches go into schools across the north-west and provide free football training for two hours a week.

And there remains a real appetite for it according to Mr Cassidy who spoke to the 'Journal' this week at the launch of the Ryan McBride Summer Camp at Brandywell - another popular initiative where over 100 kids turned out despite wet conditions.

"Normally we would have received from the Executive Office between £45,000 and £50,000 to run our schools programme in over 30 primary schools which runs right throughout the school year.

"We were expecting to hear they were going to cut maybe 25% or so but to hear they would cut it totally and we would get nothing at all, it was a blow.

"However, the directors are adamant that we won't let anything go. We will try our best to get funding from somewhere to continue with the school's programme come September."

Whether or not that programme can still be saved, the Foundation will remain in a difficult financial position with some of its other projects also in jeopardy.

"Normally what happens is you have to spend money up front and then claim it back every three months," he explained. "We've spent from April to school closure, we've paid our coaches who have been in the schools and now there's nothing to claim that back so we have to make that money up ourselves."

It's more than just football the Foundation offers young under-privileged children of the North West, with educational programmes and tuition also part of its workload. The coaches spend time with the children talking about nutrition, gender equality, discrimination and bullying.

"We have to look at our various projects now," warned Cassidy. "We have a project where we have teachers who come in and take tuition classes for P7s . We'll have to look at that and see how much we can get involved.

"The summer camps will be running right through the summer. We're running them right across the city and they're always sold out and the kids really enjoy themselves. They're getting really good coaching and as well as that they're getting told about nutrition and healthy eating so it's not just the football. Football is just the medium for other things as well.

"We're adamant we will try and keep the funding going for the schools project," he continued. "In what form that takes we don't know yet. That depends and we're looking at funding options. We held a 'Day for Ryan' on the 5th of the 5th and the schools really got behind that and we raised quite a bit of money there.

"We'll be looking at other ways and hopefully the Derry public can get behind us and Derry City fans can get behind us financially and help us out as well."

It's easy to overlook the human cost of it all but Mr Cassidy reminds us of the detrimental effects the financial cuts have on its employees.

"We have eight employees who are looking at being made redundant. We hope it doesn't come to that. It's the stark reality when people make decisions in Belfast without any regard to what's happening on the ground."

The future of the Ryan McBride Foundation is shrouded in doubt but its directors remain positive and are prepared to fight to keep alive the good work it does in keeping alive the memory of the late Ryan and his inspirational story.

"From the Board's point of view, we're adamant the foundation will keep going," stressed Mr Cassidy. "We will try to get funding from somewhere. It's difficult because you have so many other groups who have been cut as well.

"Everyone is looking for funding so it's a difficult time but we're determined that we won't let Ryan's name go or the Foundation go because it's more than just the football you see here it's wider than that.

"The whole basis of the foundation is to help young people to get to where they want to be. Ryan came very quickly from obscurity to captaining Derry City and that was done through hard work and skill. A lot of these kids have skills you just have to instill into them that through hard work you get to wherever they want to go. A lot of them don't realise that and that's what the Foundation is about, assisting young people to reach their full potential

"So while it's been pessimistic the last few days since we got the news that we got the funding cut but optimistic in that as a board we're determined we will keep the foundation going and we will try in some format to keep the school programme running."