Over the last 20 months football has played a vital part in helping communities cope with the stress of the pandemic. National League Clubs and their charities have been involved in many local initiatives to help alleviate the impact of lockdown and restrictions. They have continued to deliver activities and support partners through this difficult time. Over the weekend of the 12 to 14 November, the National League Trust and the National League are celebrating their contribution.
FC Halifax Town’s Foundation, the charitable arm of FC Halifax Town have delivered a number of activities since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic:
- Kept children active and engaged replacing sessions during lockdowns with online sessions, home training plans, skill videos lead by Academy and First Team player and online Q&As with first team players.
- Partnered the NHS Trust to replace the annual player hospital visit to Calderdale Royal by supporting the Christmas gift appeal for those in hospital over the Christmas period, delivered virtual messages recorded by first team players, which included first team players reading Christmas stories for children in hospital.
Outside of the periods of lockdown the Foundation has:
- Re-established open community coaching sessions for children aged 5-16 years of age.
- Supported schools running post-lockdown activity sessions in line with the National Curriculum to support the return of children to school, sport and general physical activity.
- Created a football-based exercise and healthy living guide for young football players and their family to encourage regular everyday activity.
- Launched holiday courses in partnership with Healthy Holidays Calderdale to ensure that local children have access to activities and meals over school holidays.
Speaking on behalf of FC Halifax Town Foundation, Steve Nichol said: “We conducted a number of questionnaires during lockdown that really highlighted the negative impact that the lockdowns had on the physical and mental wellbeing of young people. We have a small but excellent team of staff and volunteers who have worked tirelessly over recent months to re-establish and grow the activities we deliver. We support over 200 children on a weekly basis and feel the activities we provide are having a positive impact on both physical and mental wellbeing of children locally.
“We have a number of new initiatives to launch post-Christmas that will target specific groups to celebrate the return of supporters to fixtures.”
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