THE Albion Foundation has retained its status as a FA Disability Talent Hub.
This means that players taking part in disability sport at the charity will be able to follow a direct pathway to the England national teams.
The project is aimed specifically at young footballers who are either hearing impaired, visually impaired or have cerebral palsy, as well as supplementing the existing successful pathways that the Foundation has for young blind, powerchair and amputee footballers.
Will Perkins, a Talent Confirmation Lead at The FA, has been impressed with the Foundation's commitment to progressing footballers in disability sport.
"The Albion Foundation has retained its status due to its on-going support and enthusiasm for finding and developing young players," he said.
"The Club has a long history of strong delivery within the pathway and has seen a number of players that is has engaged progressing through the regional and nationals provision.
"The Club has innovative ideas on how to identify more talented young players and this has seen great results, with players being found recently within a number of mainstream environments.
"The support of the professional clubs, particularly enthusiastic ones like The Albion Foundation, is imperative in growing and developing the disability talent pathway.
"The Club's innovative practice and willingness to develop provide a high benchmark for others to aspire to and this is a huge positive for the programmes.
Maintaining the charity's position as a FA Disability Talent Hub will allow further development for many more talented players to go on to play for Albion and England, says Paul Glover, who is Head of Disability at the Foundation.
"We are delighted to retain our status," he said.
"It was a really exciting new project for us last year and we had some really good success and we are looking forward to developing and kicking on next year.
"It's a really good opportunity for us to work with talented young footballers and give them the opportunity to get on the England pathway and hopefully produce players not just for ourselves, but for England in the future.
"We are very proud of the work that we do locally and to be given this opportunity nationally is fantastic."
For more information on the Foundation's disability sport provision, please contact paul.glover@albionfoundation.co.uk.