Case Study – Debora Barbosa Debora Barbosa is a 19 year old Business and Management Student at the University of Salford. Raised in Parana, Brazil, Debora arrived in Manchester to study and contacted Manchester United Foundation about volunteering opportunities. Following an interview process in October 2014, Debora enrolled on Volunteer Ninety Nine and started volunteering at Street Reds Salford on a Tuesday and Friday night. Having Debora at the session was a great benefit to staff as there is a large Portuguese speaking community in Ordsall and this is Debora’s native tongue. In addition to Portuguese Debora is also fluent in Spanish, Italian, and English and is currently learning German and Russian. Her multilingual skills have been a great benefit to Manchester United Foundation in various different events and activities she has helped out with. As well as volunteering at Salford Street Reds, Debora assisted as a greeter at the Santa Run, a Unicef Bucket Collection, and at Powerchair Football sessions. Debora has found the Powerchair football a new and very rewarding experience, in her session review after one session in December she highlighted the benefits and how much she was enjoying it – “Today it was a very special session for me as I was able to do a more independent work with the young people. Before, I would always just watch or help a coach, but today I was in charge of doing some exercises with four of the participants. This experience is becoming more and more enjoyable as the kids begin to get used with my work therefore they are communicating more and more with me and I'm creating more confidence towards the job.I really enjoy working with kids that have some sort of disability, I have never before, therefore this experience is helping me to improve my social skills and understanding towards people with disabilities” In February Debora volunteered at Manchester United Foundation player event #SchoolsUnited. At this event the entire first team went back to school, taking part in different activities and events across Manchester United Foundation’s partner schools. Debora was hand at Burnage Media Academy to make use of her multilingualism by assisting Foundation Communications department with translating native Spanish speakers, David de Gea and Angel Di Maria. Debora highlighted what a great opportunity this was in her session feedback – “The player event was so far my best experience inside Manchester United Foundation. I absolutely loved it. Getting the chance to meet and talk in Spanish with De Gea and Di Maria was such an amazing experience.” Debora with David De Gea and Angel Di Maria at #SchoolsUnited

Testimonies: Below are testimonies from various members of Foundation staff that Debora has helped over the last 6 months: Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Lauren Ford – “Debora has been incredibly helpful over the past few months, assisting with basic administrative tasks. She has always demonstrated a willingness to learn with a positive but hardworking attitude. An extremely bright individual, her quality of work for me has been second to none and I know I can rely on her to complete any task given efficiently and to a high standard.” Community Cohesion Coordinator, Dean Ellul – “Debra has been a ray of sunshine, very observant and also has an abundance of confidence to tackle tasks that she has put her way, she worked with on a tournament I was coordinating and she was pivotal in making the timings happen and also great at liaising with the coaches to get the results back. She is a credit to the volunteer programme and has made great strides thus far and I believe she will have a great career in whatever she does.” Communications Manager, Rebecca Newton – “Working on the #schoolsunited event, Debora was able to assist the Communications department by working as an interpreter to David de Gea and Angel Di Maria. Her duties included meeting players, advising them on activities they were taking part in and interviewing players with the MUTV camera crew. This was an incredible opportunity to offer a volunteer but Debora was more than up to the task. She was professional, polite and proactive throughout, what particularly impressed me was the way Debora had planned for the event, she came armed with her own notes and was very well prepared for the interviews. I was also delighted by the way she efficiently translated the player interviews back to English for us. Turning around all the content from such a player event was a huge undertaking and Debora assisted the team greatly by typing out the transcript. I would have no hesitation in using Debora at any of our events for the future, she was a real asset to the Communications team on the day and I look forward to working with her again.” Office Manager, Janet Quinn – “I have tried to think of a few ways to start this paragraph as when I think of Debora there are multiple adjectives and many positive compliments that spring instantly to mind. Her ‘can do’ attitude paired with the speed at which Debora works is a breath of fresh air and a real asset to me and the Foundation when she comes in to help cover the Reception desk. I know that I can leave Debora to work independently and will complete any job given with a no nonsense approach and she will soon be back at my desk looking for the next Job to do. Debora is a hardworking and helpful person and I always make her my first port of call when I need someone cover Reception for the Foundation.” Through her volunteering work at Manchester United Foundation, Debora has gained a 2 week internship in the Sponsor Services department in the club which she will undertake in April.