Archive for month: April, 2020

The past few weeks have brought new challenges for everyone, since the coronavirus pandemic hit, but for Club Community Organisations (CCOs) it poses a significant question…

How can they continue their work which serves some of the most vulnerable members of society at a time of great uncertainty for their own organisation?

Ash Hackett, who is Chief Executive at Blackpool FC Community Trust, explains.

“The vast majority of our funding partners have been fantastic and told us to use the funding however we need to in order to continue to support our community. Yet we still have to account for a loss of income from activities where people pay to turn up, such as holiday clubs. However, we have strong governance and reserve funds in place to help us through this very difficult period if it becomes necessary.”

Hackett says that even during these uncertain times for the organisation, it’s still the people in the communities they serve that remain their number one priority.

He adds: “We thought about whether the Government Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is appropriate for us. However the most important point for us is ensuring we have enough staff to continue to support our community.”

CCOs across the country have been looking at innovative ways of how they can continue delivering their existing programmes, as well as finding new ways to serve their community.

Hackett explains what they’ve been doing at Blackpool: “My team have been absolutely amazing in doing this. Every staff member has continued to work from home, developing a host of ways to stay in contact with our participants and partner organisations.

“Our education and employability teams have developed virtual classrooms to continue to educate our students and maintain some regularity for them. This means our BTEC Sports College Students, Degree Students and Traineeship participants continue to turn up for classes each day and complete their normal work just from home.

“Some don’t have laptops, so we have sent them home with ours and some don’t have Wi-Fi in their homes so we are sending paper based assignments for them to complete and we are calling them to talk through the subjects, whilst we investigate if we can get them online in their houses.

“Our school delivery teams have continued to support educational establishments that are open for key workers and are short staffed, by going in and being an extra body to deliver some PE and other fun activities. Our secondary schools team have been putting challenges and ideas together to support teenagers’ resilience and mental wellbeing. “

The members of the CCO team not involved in this delivery have been hard at work collating schemes of work, creating and undertaking challenges and thinking of games for schools and families to follow in isolation.

Hackett adds: “We have competitions coming up over the next few weeks including our #BlackpoolRhyme competition, running throughout April, for everyone to tell us what they love about Blackpool in the form of a poem.”

CCOs work with some of the most vulnerable members of the community and ensuring that they are not affected by the current situation is a key priority, as Hackett outlines.

“We have set up call centres for participants to engage with us, if they need a chat, some help or information about other organisations they may need to talk to,” he says.

“We are also in regular contact with our more socially isolated participants, to see if they need any help or support. It’s really important we consider everybody’s mental health during this period and this is one way we can help with this.”

Alongside many other CCOs during this difficult time, Blackpool FC Community Trust has also received a host of calls for additional help that are outside their normal operations. One of those being the call from Blackpool Council to set up a community hub.

“We will host one of twelve hubs that will distribute food parcels to the most vulnerable residents that are isolated for 12 weeks. Our team will coordinate the Bloomfield Ward and deliver the parcels to people’s doorsteps.”

Hull City’s Tigers Trust and Leeds United Football Club and their Club Community Organisation have linked-up with ‘His Church’ (HIS) as part of an initiative to support NHS workers and vulnerable people who have been heavily impacted by COVID-19.

The initiative is known as ‘In It Together’ and will not only help to tackle the shortage that has been seen in food and supplies in the area, but will also create hampers to be given out to NHS staff who are working on the frontline every day to protect people suffering in our communities.

The launch sees lorryloads of deliveries to both Hull City and Leeds United football clubs, who will help distribute it to hard-pressed NHS staff in their communities. From Hull City’s ground, the football club will help to transfer the food to Hull Royal Infirmary where it will be distributed to NHS staff at the infirmary and Castle Hill.

At Leeds United, the first lorryload of supplies arrived at the stadium yesterday afternoon, with coaches and staff on hand to sort the parcels into several vehicles ready for distribution. The food packages where then delivered, through a contact-free method in line with government guidelines, to local hospitals and the South and East ‘Early Help Hubs’ that are working with other foodbanks and vulnerable families during this period.

HIS is a charity that has been providing help to foodbanks across the country for the past 13 years and due to the coronavirus outbreak, the organisation has had to increase the amount of stock it supplies fourfold, with demand at an all-time high.

Their warehouse, which is based in Lincolnshire, is 50,000 square foot and stocked with freezers, fridges and shelving to store product. Before the crisis they were distributing just over 50,000 meals a week across the UK and in response to the overwhelming demand they are now receiving, they are set to distribute around 200,000 meals a week through a network of over 15,000 charities and organisations, including via both of the Championship sides. 

Senior Coordinator for His Church Richard Humphrey, said: “We have never known demand like it. We have staff who are living in lock-down at our warehouse to continue getting food out to people who need it at this desperate time.

“We are simultaneously sourcing new donations to maintain our supply levels. With COVID-19, we really all are ‘In It Together’ and it is only by working together that we will triumph over the virus and the hardship it creates.”

Michael Kinsey, Operations Executive at the Leeds United Foundation, added: “Leeds City Council have set-up a really well coordinated operation to support those who are in need throughout the city and we know it is important to play our part in helping to support vulnerable people and families who have been heavily impacted by COVID-19.

“We have a longstanding relationship with His Church and the operation they run is fantastic. The amount of people they are able to support is outstanding and we want to ensure that this initiative is going to help people in the long term. It won’t just be food packages, but we will look at supplying emergency care parcels as well to help with other essential items such as medicine, toilet roll, nappies, washing powder and so much more.

“By working together, we are able to help so many more people who really need it.”

Head of Programmes at Hull City’s Tigers Trust, Richard Dexter said: “As a local Charity we are delighted to continue to support our local communities and importantly the NHS through these unprecedented times, through our on-going partnership with His Church. The opportunity to provide fresh food for NHS workers who continue to work tirelessly is critical to us and the people we work with, and the very least we can do as a means of showing our gratitude to them. During these difficult times we are proud to be able to do this with the on-going support of our funders the Premier League Community Foundation and EFL Trust together with the support of our Club and Trustees.”

Blackburn Rovers Community Trust’s Events and Fundraising Officer, Jess Clegg, says that although it is a challenging time for everyone, she is proud of the work that is being done in communities. 

After having to cancel their sleep-out event this weekend due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Trust have ensured that the Blackburn Foodbank has still been able to carry out its duties, despite having to close its doors to the general public. 

She said: “One of the main things we have been doing is working with the Blackburn Foodbank; we had a sleep-out event planned for this weekend and the proceeds from that would have gone to them, but with the current situation we have had to postpone that event. 

“One of my first thoughts when the coronavirus became more prevalent was ‘how would the Foodbank cope with what is going on?’, so I got in touch with them and they really welcomed our support. We went in and packed the bags, trying to get ahead of the game a bit so they were ready to give out parcels straight away. 

“Last week they had to close their doors to the general public, so we came up with a bit of a plan to do a delivery service. We had two minibuses from the Community Trust go out and deliver all the food parcels to the referrals that were coming in.”

With the Government’s advice ringing firmly in Jess’ ears, she has been extra careful when out and about, making sure that her team have the correct equipment that they need to carry out their tasks, such as hand sanitiser.

She added: “We have been doing a lot and making sure that we are sticking to the guidelines; obviously using the hand sanitisers, spreading ourselves in a decent space around the minibus and, until we get told any different, we are going to continue what we are doing. 

“We have such a huge responsibility, really, because there is such a huge service in Blackburn and, without our support, I don’t think the Foodbank would have been able to get the packages out to those people who really rely on them. 

“Our support has not stopped there, though, as we have offered help to anyone of our participants that might need any help getting out and about, mainly to get them some essentials like shopping and toiletries, so it has been really full-on for us over the past couple of weeks. 

It was confirmed very early on that vulnerable adults over a certain age would have to stay at home to protect themselves from the virus, meaning that some of the Rovers Community Trust schemes would have to be cancelled, but the participants would not be forgotten, with staff members from the Trust getting on the phone to make sure they know that they were not alone. 

Clegg said: “Some of our sessions where we have older participants have unfortunately had to be cancelled, such as line dancing and health walks, so you’re looking at 60-plus. With that age group told not to come out of their houses, it has made things quite difficult for us in that respect. 

“But we have battled on, like they have really – the staff that would tend to be on those sessions have been on the phone, calling them up, just to see how they are getting on, asking them if they need anything or if we could help them with the odd jobs here and there. 

“It’s just to be a friendly voice on the phone, really, because we have built up a really friendly relationship with these people. That phone call from our staff could be the only one they receive this week, or in two weeks’ time, because they haven’t really got anyone around this area.”