Bolton Manager Ian Evatt Helps Tackle Loneliness for World Mental Health Day

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Ahead of World Mental Health Day Bolton Wanderers Manager, Ian Evatt surprise garden gate visit to two long standing season ticket holders.

As part of the EFL’s charity partnership with Mind over the past two seasons, the EFL has worked with the mental health charity to launch a campaign to mark World Mental Health Day, which takes place on 10th October each year, with this year focusing on the ‘Do one thing’ campaign.

The ‘Do one thing’ campaign may involve reaching out to a friend, taking part in physical exercise, meditating or listening to music in order to look after your own mental health and that of others.

Wanderers are also one of 32 clubs who are part of EFL Trust’s Tackling Loneliness Together Campaign. Recognising the massive affect that loneliness can have on mental health, particularly among older people, Bolton focused their ‘one thing’ on Loneliness.

Evatt visited supporters Anne and Marie in a garden gate visit. The sisters have held season tickets with the Wanderers for over 50 years and were surprised with the special visit of the Head Coach. Alongside a talk all things football and Bolton Wanderers, both were given an activity pack containing puzzles, sudoku and word searches. They also both received a signed copy of the Newport County programme.

A recent study from the Office National Statistics (ONS) showed that 2.6 million adults reported that they felt lonely ”often” or ”always” whilst 7.4 million adults reported their well-being had been affected as a result of them feeling lonely in the past seven days. The ‘Tackling Loneliness Together’ project is aimed at connecting more older people at risk of loneliness. The EFL Trust are proud to be receiving £810,000 from the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) to support 32 EFL Club Community Organisations through the project in deprived locations.  The grants will allow expanded activities across the country under the campaign ‘Let’s Tackle Loneliness Together’, include befriending phone calls, online social groups, a pen-pal scheme, social action from young people taking part in NCS and socially distanced ‘garden gate’ conversations to emerge across EFL communities and reach the people who need this vital support right when they need it the most.

For more information on how to get involved with ‘Do one thing’ on World Mental Health Day please visit here. For more information on the EFL and Mind’s charity partnership visit here.

Mural designed by young people to feature around the City of Bradford

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Bradford train station has been lit up with a brand new mural designed by teens on Bradford City Community Foundation’s ‘Keep Doing Good’ programme.

A group of 19 teenagers have taken part in ‘Keep Doing Good’ which is part of the National Citizen Service’s (NCS) ‘One Million Hours of Doing Good’, a wider pledge to enable teens to take an active role in helping the country recover from the ongoing impacts of COVID-19.

With Bradford having the fastest growing youth population outside of London, the group wanted to do some good that would highlight them in a positive way. They wanted to leave behind a legacy for years to come and they have done just that with this project.

They decided on creating a mural which would showcase the diversity of culture within Bradford whilst celebrating the work of the key workers who have supported the community tirelessly throughout the pandemic.

The group split into smaller teams, each working together on a design. The teams then had to face a ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch to a panel made up of representatives from Northern Rail, Bradford Council and Network Rail. The panel were blown away by the quality of the mural designs, so much so they refused to choose a winner. Instead they set the teams a new challenge of merging the murals together.

The teams then worked hard to merge the designs and decided to call the mural ‘We are Bradford’. Bradford City Community Foundation have been working in partnership with Northern rail since 2016 and so they have agreed to display this mural in Bradford train station to give a more positive feel to the station.

A young person from the team said:

“It’s really nice to see the work we did on week 1 come together… I can’t believe our design is going to be all over Bradford in different stations.”

Lizzie Saunders, NCS manager at Bradford City Foundation said:

“I am so proud of the work the young people have completed over two short weeks.

COVID-19 has brought so much uncertainty and disruption to the community, but the young people allowed this to motivate and inspire them to take part in real change in their community, and have truly demonstrated that they are an asset that should be celebrated in the district. I really hope the mural brings a smile to thousands of individuals who will see it every day, and encourage them to be proud of the diverse and wonderful community of Bradford”.

This was echoed by Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Healthy People and Places Portfolio Holder, who said:

“This brilliant work by local young people is very positive response to these incredibly challenging times. I applaud their energy, enthusiasm and creativity in creating this fantastic artwork which will no doubt lift people’s spirits.”

This Summer on NCS’ ‘Keep Doing Good’, young people from Yorkshire and The Humber have contributed nearly 20,000 volunteering hours to help tackle the challenges communities have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. To find out more about NCS ‘Keep Doing Good’ visit wearencs.com.

Huddersfield Town Foundation donates more than £13,500 to local homelessness charities

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The Huddersfield Town Foundation is delighted to announce the distribution of over £13,600 to eight Kirklees community groups!

To date the Foundation has raised £21,929.68 from March 2020’s Big Sleep Out (BSO) event, with donations still being received in person and via the post.

The remaining £8,279.89 is set to be donated to other organisations once they are able to resume operations later in the year.

Returning for the its third instalment on Friday 6 March 2020, the BSO saw more than 130 Huddersfield Town supporters brave the cold to spend the night at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Participants were encouraged to fundraise as much as possible in the build-up before bedding down in the Chadwick Lawrence Stand on the night.

Following the event, the Town Foundation invited applications from Kirklees charities who work with people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, as well as groups who support people with financial issues or are of ill health.

After assessment from its Board of Trustees, the Foundation has now allocated money to the following groups:

One Big Family are a homeless charity working predominantly in Huddersfield, whose volunteers will be found out on the streets at night offering vital supplies and support.

Through the BSO fund, the Town Foundation has purchased and donated 100 meal vouchers at £3.50 each to be used at Huddersfield Mission’s Evening Café.

£2,160 has been given to Basement Recovery Project, who deliver bespoke recovery advice to people struggling with drug and/or alcohol addictions. The money will be used to purchase furniture for their new supported accommodation unit.

Another beneficiary of the BSO fund will be the Hirsche Foundation, who stress that the homeless aren’t just people sleeping rough – it also includes people sofa surfing, fleeing domestic abuse or living in unreasonable conditions.

They have been awarded £2,500 to continue work on the Bus Shelter Project, which will turn a disused bus into a safe place for people in need to stay.

Dewsbury Community Outreach have also been successful in their application for funding and have been awarded a total of £1,500.

The Charity, whose volunteers are based at the refuge building next to Elim Church in Dewsbury, will use the money to purchase food for use in their community kitchen.

Another deserving recipient of funding are the Destitute Asylum Seekers Huddersfield (DASH), who support Refugees and Asylum Seekers in areas such as Housing, Health, Education and Finance.

Their £1,430 grant will be used to purchase mobile phone top up cards, enabling service users to stay in touch with their support coordinators.

In addition, Platform 1, a men’s health and crisis charity based in the centre of Huddersfield, have been awarded £2,000.

They will use the grant to facilitate extra pastoral care for their clients, including those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The final two recipients from this initial round of donations will be two organisations who have worked in partnership with the Town Foundation throughout the 2019/20 season – Batley Food Bank and the Welcome Centre Huddersfield.

Batley Food Bank have been awarded £1,710 to continue the assembly of emergency packs for people who have been referred to their service.

The Welcome Centre will use their sum of £2,000 for their furniture project, which looks to source items of furniture for people in need.

As well as those eight initial donations, the Town Foundation will provide significant funds to The Huddersfield Mission and Batley Care & Drop In once they are able to restart their operations following COVID-19.

On the confirmation of the initial beneficiaries, Town Foundation Fundraising Executive Lisa Bottomley said:

“We are delighted to be able to announce the first round of beneficiaries from this year’s Big Sleep Out.

The event is always one of the biggest on our calendar with so much planning and thought put into it, so to see so many people turn up and such a substantial amount of money raised was a wonderful feeling.”

Foundation CEO Siobhan Atkinson added:

“It’s great to once again support a range of homelessness focused organisations across Kirklees. This year we have been able to support more projects than ever before, and we are proud to play a small part in helping them grow.

The Town Foundation remains committed to tackling the issue head on and with many charities being unable to fundraise this year, we are aiming for an even bigger and better BSO 4 in March 2021!”

After three successful years, the Town Foundation intends to hold Big Sleep Out 4 in March 2021 at the John Smith’s Stadium. Keep an eye on htafcfoundation.com for more information in due course!