Communities in Focus 25/26

The Wembley to Soweto Foundation & Premier League collaboration continues with:
“Communities in Focus 2025/26”

“Communities in Focus 25/26” continues the collaboration between the Wembley to Soweto Foundation and the Premier League, which started in 2017. The initial project involved training a young person from each of the 20 Premier League Clubs’ education departments to become a designated community outreach photographer. The northern cohort trained at Manchester City and the southern cohort at Arsenal. The photographs taken over the duration of these courses were subsequently exhibited at The National Football Museum in Manchester. We now aim to continue this exciting collaboration, working with community outreach groups across the UK and ultimately allowing them to share their experiences with their American and Mexican contemporaries at the World Cup 2026.   

The Wembley to Soweto team has always believed that the on-the-job training employed in courses such as those described above is the best way to learn photographic and artistic skills and that they can be taught to any young person who has a passion for learning, regardless of their means and background. By teaching this way, we actively nurture young people’s self-belief, confidence, and ambition. 

About The Wembley to Soweto Foundation

Photo by Thapelo

The Wembley to Soweto Foundation is a registered charity, providing photographic, art and film training to enhance the life-skills, self-confidence and employability of learners who would not normally be afforded the opportunity to engage in such a broad range of educational activities. The Foundation enables a diverse cross-section of young people to move their lives forward and make a positive contribution to the society in which they live.

We operate an inclusive programme aimed at helping young people with troubled backgrounds from all over the world, regardless of circumstance. To date, the charity has supported young people affected by poverty, war, hardship, discrimination, mental health issues, trauma, and disability. Crucially, it gives students the opportunity to become mentors, assistants and, indeed, teachers on future courses.

The Foundation was established in the townships of Johannesburg, South Africa in 2010 against the backdrop of the FIFA World Cup and has since evolved into an international programme of courses run both in the UK and abroad.

young photographers

Detailed overview of the project

We are now giving the opportunity to eight disadvantaged young people from outreach projects at each of four Premier League football clubs – namely, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Brighton and Hove Albion – to take part in a similar programme throughout the autumn and winter of 2025 and to gain the skills required to become an employable photographer within their community.

Prior to the start of each programme, members of the Wembley to Soweto team will come to the respective project centres and conduct preliminary workshops with local young people. This will enable the teaching staff to gain crucial input from potential future participants regarding how they see the project being best positioned in their local area.

As well as seasoned professionals making up the teaching team on each bespoke project, we will also employ former students to actively take part in mentoring and training our new learners.

Photo by John Cole

This collaboration will afford 32 young people from historically disadvantaged communities the chance to access top-level training in both photography and fine art, with resultant large-scale exhibitions set to tour the country in January 2026. These exhibitions will also travel to the United States and Mexico over the course of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

LPS exhibition
sao paolo exhibition

One of the key components of these exhibitions will be an open-door policy for local educational institutions, whether primary, secondary, or tertiary. A variety of activities, tried and tested on many past projects, will enable students from the wider community to engage with the work of the photographers and artists.

wembley to soweto exhibition

This can range from school projects exploring life in the foreign communities depicted in the photographs, to workshops investigating the diverse emotions suggested by the content on display and how these feelings may be expressed in other art forms, including music, poetry and prose. Over the course of past exhibitions, we have regularly engaged with thousands of young learners using the photographs on display as a springboard to further educational investigation.

Photo editing with students
Alexis Sanchez photo by Victor
GS Ladies

We focus on both men’s and women’s sports in equal measure, ensuring a strong, diverse focus to all the work we do.  

To view a comprehensive description of projects run in conjunction with the Premier League since 2017, please visit the following sections of our website, which show how young people are trained, a selection of their photographs and how their exhibitions are curated. The modus operandi for “Communities in Focus 25/26” will mirror earlier ventures, aiming to produce equally remarkable content and educational outreach, as well as celebrating the participants’ work with the wider community. 

Overall Dates 

The overall proposed dates for “Communities in Focus 25/26” will be: 

  • Manchester: 17 – 26 September 
  • Newcastle: 15 – 24 October 
  • Birmingham: 5 – 14 November  
  • Brighton: 19 – 25 November  

To view detailed teaching schedules and daily programming for each project, please use the hyperlinks below:  

Art project to run in conjunction with photography training 

There will also be a fine art element to the projects in each city. This will give the opportunity to two young people to work with an artist from each local area. The aim would be to produce a piece of art from each participating club/city reflecting the work of the trainee photographers, in whatever form that may take. 

The finished artworks would then be displayed alongside the photography exhibitions in 2026. Again, for examples of current fine art courses including those held at Premier League clubs and local further education colleges, please visit: 
https://www.wembleytosoweto.com/latest-news/ 

Exhibitions of historic photography projects and artwork will be mounted in each participant city over the period of the respective course.  

Suggested exhibition venues are: 

  • Manchester: 17 – 26 September at The National Football Museum 
  • Newcastle: 15 – 24 October at The Baltic Art Gallery, Gateshead 
  • Birmingham: 5 – 14 November at Midland Arts Centre 
  • Brighton: 19 – 25 November at The Dome 

At the conclusion of the “Communities in Focus 25/26” project, another large-scale exhibition celebrating the work produced will be presented in the respective host cities, in the same venues as above, in the week commencing 12 January 2026. 

World Cup 2026  

World Cup 2010

From May to July 2026, our project turns to both the Street Child World Cup and the FIFA World Cup. 

Photo by Colombo Tariana
Women footballers with flag

As in previous years, we will select a participant from each city involved in the “Communities in Focus 25/26” project and take them to Mexico City, where they will work with graduates from our previous courses in Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as disadvantaged young people from Mexico City itself. Here, they will have the opportunity to work as official photographers at both football festivals.

Again, photographs from the projects in Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Brighton, Los Angeles and Chicago will be exhibited in Mexico City, as well as photographs taken at both the Street Child World Cup and the FIFA World Cup.

For detailed overviews of similar World Cup projects, please see:

Documentary 

Wembley to soweto on BBC Sport

A documentary will be filmed of “Communities in Focus 25/26” covering everything from the first day in Manchester to the end of the group stages of the World Cup.

As can be seen on the relevant teaching schedules, local news crews will be invited to each of our UK hubs. This footage, as well as follow-up footage shot at the World Cup project itself, will be used to assemble a BBC documentary about the project to be broadcast before a game in the knockout stages of the competition.  

A fitting conclusion to a project allowing young people from both sides of the Atlantic to meet, share experiences and work together. 

W2S Arsenal FC group photo 3