HITZ team get boost from Foundation

By Mark Stevens
10/3/21

Exeter Chiefs HITZ officer, Gareth Williams, has praised the contribution of the Exeter Chiefs Foundation in helping the award-winning programme continue during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

A £7,000 donation from the Foundation has been used to ensure the HITZ team have been able throughout the past year to provide a safe and socially-distanced environment at Topsham Rugby Club for their 40 students to carry out work within the award-winning education and employability programme.

HITZ uses rugby’s core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship to get young people not in education, training or employment back into education, training apprenticeships and/or employment.

The programme also offers essential enrichment and sporting activities which supporters the development of an individual through not only improving their mental, but physical, well-being as well.

Foundation Trustee, Alan Quantick, said: “We were delighted to be asked by the club’s community and HITZ teams to help with the overheads for the year. We have seen first-hand the success of the programme and what a difference it is making to the lives of these young people in and around Exeter.

“Having the open space and classrooms down at Topsham, who I have to say have been excellent hosts, has meant that the HITZ programme has not only gone from strength to strength, but has been able to operate magnificently during the pandemic.”

Williams echoed the comments, adding: “The donation from the Foundation is a fantastic gesture and has really helped us in our quest to maintain the best standards of provision for all our students on the programme.

“To be able to have a safe, welcoming and socially-distanced environment is key to our success and has meant that all our students have continued to flourish in what has been a very tough year for us all.”