Best Football Community Scheme – non Premier League
Bloomsbury Football Foundation
Bloomsbury Football Foundation is a registered charity based in Camden. This year, our main focus has been our expansive and wide-ranging ‘Changing the Game Programme’. The central mission of this project is to use football as a tool by which to improve the lives of children across London – and, importantly, to equalize access to the sport by removing the barriers presented by gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic background.
Bloomsbury coaches initially engage children and young people in football through free-to-access community sessions in schools and on lower-income housing estates, before providing them with ‘pay-what-you-can’ bursary places on our Foundation and Academy teams (which train and compete on a weekly basis). In so doing, we provide an accessible pathway into increasingly rigorous and challenging sporting opportunities. We also run dedicated programmes for refugees and young people with disabilities.
We never turn a child away for financial reasons, allowing us to reach thousands of traditionally ‘hard-to-reach’ young people each and every week.
Bloomsbury sessions work to improve physical health and mental well-being, as well as fostering transferable soft skills and improving off-pitch behaviour. Our CTG Programme levels the playing field for young Londoners, fostering holistic improvements in participants’ lives.
Dons Local Action Group (with AFC Wimbledon Foundation)
Dons Local Action Group (DLAG), in partnership with the AFC Wimbledon Foundation, is a network of volunteers who came together at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. We work with local communities in the London boroughs of Merton, Wandsworth, and Kingston to tackle the issues of food, digital and furniture poverty.
Dons Local Action Group is unique in that it is still largely powered by volunteers. In 2022 approximately 1,000 gave their time and dedication to help us meet the ever increasing needs of our community as vulnerable people not being reached through other channels struggled with the cost-of-living crisis.
Across the year we collected and redistributed over £1 million worth of food, furniture and laptops to those who most needed our help. This included over 900 families to whom we delivered food boxes. We also provided regular bulk deliveries to 35 partner agencies such as food banks, shelters for the homeless, refugees and victims of domestic violence and community kitchens.
Dons Local Action Group has become a vital part of the social support network in the boroughs in which we work, making a real and positive difference to our community.
Preston North End Community and Education Trust
2022 was a year of continued success and growth for Preston North End Community and Education Trust [PNECET], demonstrated by earning recognition at the 2022 EFL Awards.
The Trust has grown to 36 full-time staff and for the second year running, it has invested over £1 million into the Preston community through delivering our life-changing programmes.
Despite the challenging economic climate of 2022 and the challenges, we continue to face as a result of the cost of living crisis PNECET continued to diversify our provisions to meet the needs of our community including the launch of our new Mental Health provision, Children’s Weight Management Services and Traineeships whilst also expanding our existing provision to reach more people across the community. During 2022, over 17,000 benefitted from our programmes, an 88% increase from 2021.
St Mirren FC
The leading child and youth care charity, Kibble became part-owners of St Mirren alongside the St Mirren Independent Supporters Association (SMISA). The agreement is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK as the only top flight league team that is owned by fans and run in partnership with one of the country’s biggest charities. Through the dynamic partnership, we have strengthened and grown side-by-side, while staying true to our shared values, not-for-profit ethos, and model of community ownership. Together, we will address local deprivation and exclusion through youth employment, community engagement, initiatives, and activities.
By working as one, we set-up a Warm Bank appeal to ensure all families in the community were able to access warm clothing throughout winter, as we faced a cost-of-living crisis. Our ‘Help a Buddie’ scheme has donated free match day tickets to many local organisations and individuals including ACCORD Hospice, the Disability Resource Centre and Ukrainian families. We have donated over 200 tickets to Renfrewshire primary schools to encourage interest in fitness and open up the chance of a free and fun afternoon out. Furthermore, young people have increased access to employment and training opportunities to build a career they enjoy.
The Russell Martin Foundation
The Russell Martin Foundation (RMF) is a non-profit organisation based in Southwick, Brighton and Hove which uses the power of football to help change people’s lives across Sussex RMF employs 50 staff across three departments – Football Education and Health RMF is committed to supporting marginalised young people and providing opportunities for females of all backgrounds and abilities to play football.
Our Extra Time projects helps children who have repeatedly attempted suicide, who are affected by domestic violence, have been both sexually and criminally exploited and are involved in gangs, poverty, self-harm and community violence In 2022, we supported 150 young people through 12 week mentoring and support programmes 97% of them reported increased attendance when re-admitted to their mainstream secondary school.
In 2022, RMF established ‘Free Kicks’ – a weekly free football programme to increase football opportunities for girls from low-income families to play. The programme 50 regular weekly participants.
In July we delivered our second annual girls summer football tournament with over 800 girls from 100 teams taking part. Our women’s over 30’s recreational football programme set up in 2022 supports women struggling with mental health the chance to play football for the first time.
Watford FC’s Community Sports and Education Trust
“The Trust is a lifesaver to many within the local community.”
“The Trust is a formidable force for good in the community.”
Watford Football Club’s Community Sports and Education Trust is a team of sixty-two members of full and part-time staff, over eighty members of casual staff, and forty volunteers; working together with a host of funding, operational, and local partners to improve lives and enhance communities. In the last year alone, they engaged fifteen thousand, six hundred, and thirty-two unique individuals in over thirty community projects, activities, and events, spurred on by their three-year strategy ‘The Way Forward 2020-23’.
With a wealth of evidence behind them, they undoubtedly delivered on the priorities outlined in their strategy, playing an active role in improving peoples’ physical and mental health and wellbeing, creating and providing opportunities for people to learn and develop new skills, as well as bringing people together to improve community cohesion.
